


Broken Shell

by ViridianK



Series: Rest, Recovery, and Return [1]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Failtastic Humor!, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Love, M/M, Nivanfield, Original Character(s), Romance, happiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-03-15 00:22:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3431042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViridianK/pseuds/ViridianK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something has washed up on a shore near the specified training grounds for the new recruits of the North American B.S.A.A.'s Alpha Team. Quentin and Ed find a B.O.W. in a fire fight with J'avo. They kill off the J'avo that were attacking the B.O.W. Will this B.O.W. turn out to be friend or foe?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Blinded

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bygoneboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bygoneboy/gifts), [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Gifted to FatHobbitLover for writing Outfielder and to SilentShifter for being an awesome beta reader <3

Chapter 1: Blinded

“To be blinded is to be open to the rest of the world.” ~Unknown

 

~Piers

 

                The last thing he remembers is the building crashing down, the feeling of death and despair flooding into his mind. He washed up on a deserted beach, not knowing where he was anymore. It was good that the beach was so deserted this late in the day because he could barely move without having a sharp surge of pain course through his entire body; although, the deserted beach could possibly be on account of the storm brewing over his head. It looked to be as if a hurricane was moving in, or at the very least, a nasty tropical storm, Piers would need to find some sort of shelter soon.

~Chris (Same time)

 

                It’s been two weeks since China happened. He wanted to leave the B.S.A.A., but he knew that he owed everything to the men he had lost. They had a vaccine and treatment going, so there was still hope for infected people. Jake Muller was the one he had to thank for that, even though the treatments weren’t one hundred percent effective, they still gave people a fighting chance, they just needed to still have a will to live buried somewhere inside of them.

                That is how Chris Redfield found himself with his new ragtag group of fresh recruits. They were still eager to aid against the threat of B.O.W.s but one of the few things that kept Chris going was the debt to the men he had lost in China and Edonia, and he still had the badge of the most recent sacrifice of a noble man to save Chris’ life. Suddenly, Chris got an incoming call to his phone, it was Jill Valentine, Chris wondered what she could possibly be calling him for now to talk to him about.

_“Jill, what on earth do you want this time?”_

_“I’m just checking in on you, you old bear. I just wanted to remind you to be careful there is a storm coming in and people have still been seeing wreckage wash ashore. Some civilians have tried to go check the stuff out and then they just go missing. J’avo were also reported to have been sighted in the area.”_

Chris sighed; he was getting all too used to these things by now, _“I know Jill, I know. We are just going to head out and run some drills to practice for bad weather during a mission. Any sign of hostiles and I will pull my ment out of there, you know I am not eager to lose any more people in this war.”_

Jill bit her lip for a moment before she continued, _“I know you aren’t just… be careful, ok?”_

 _“Yes Jill, I’ll call with an update if something bad happens.”_ And with that Chris disconnected from the phone call.

                Chris returned from his call to look to his men. They were a lot like his last group was, young, happy, care free, everything they had been before the first signs of war began to ebb its way into them almost as fine as the way a spider would weave its very own web. Chris had seen time and time again how young and care free people could become hardened and cold, dead to the rest of the world from war. He had been there once, but even then it was the world that was dead to him, rather than the other way around. He still remembered that day, when he was wasting away in a bar in Europe, the day his team came back looking for him.

**_“Good steak is hard to come by, not like back home.”_ **

                Chris has just scowled at the man back then while order another drink from the bartender. He had no clue who this man was or why he was even trying to talk to him. Then the waitress came back, pouring him barely anything while he took the bottle away and said a few insulting things to her.

**_“Get the hell out of my bar!”_ **

                Chris had nowhere to go, he just staggered away from the bar while still holding the booze, this is what he was now, a useless and pathetic old drunk plagued by his past. What happened next was still a haze and fog in the back of Chris’ mind, still waiting to be lifted. A man grabbed him by the shoulder saying the bartender asked him to leave. The next thing Chris remembered about that day was throwing the man onto a table, bringing up the bottle he still had to bring it crashing down on the man’s skull.

                Then, before he had managed to break the bottle on the man’s head, a man grabbed his arm, shaking his head indicating that the man was not worth the effort it took to even raise the bottle off the table. Chris simply stumbled over to a table, the man following him and sitting down across from him. That is when the man started showing him pictures, demanding that he remember his past. Then it all started rushing back to him in painful waves, his men, Edonia, Ada Wong, everything that had put him into his amnesia, and then he recognized the man, Piers Nivans. Piers Nivans was the man that sacrificed himself to save his Captain; he was the Captain’s Ace and always stayed on target, even when Chris’ vendetta against Ada Wong was causing more and more people to lose their lives in a futile fight.

Chris was jolted from his thoughts when one of the new recruits came up and asked him a question, _“Captain Redfield, are you ok? You don’t look too good.”_

Chris responded to the new recruit with a melancholy tone in his voice that did not go unnoticed by the man in front of him, _“Yeah just… remembering things.”_

_“Alright, if you say so Sir, but we should get moving and get this stuff done before the storm sets in on us.”_

_“Alright then Quentin, round up the rest of the men and we can head on out to get started practicing.”_

_“Roger that Captain Redfield.”_ Quentin gave a salute to Chris before starting on his way to the rest of the team.

                Chris watched as Quentin jogged away to get the rest of the team. They all got together eagerly, a lot like a team he used to have, but no, today would not be a repeat of the past. Today, nobody from his team was going to die, not today, not if Chris could help it.

Chris yelled to his team while they were still gearing up, _“Alright boys let’s move on out of here! We probably only have an hour or two at the most before this storm starts to pick up.”_

 _“Roger that Captain!”_ Every single one of his recruits yelled this together in unison and started heading out of the gate.

~Piers

 

                Piers stumbled around trying to find adequate shelter from the incoming storm. He was partially blind now, completely in one eye and the virus was starting to blur his vision in the other eye, which happened to be his left eye. To compensate, his body had amplified his hearing. He could hear the worst of the storm rumbling off into the distance, and from what he could tell it sounded to be several miles away. Then he started to hear voices, some of them were the obvious signs that J’avo were in the area but there were other ones, more human sounding but he couldn’t quite place them.

                Suddenly, gunshots rang out over the increasing sounds of the storm, one such bullet knicked Piers in the shoulder. He could feel blood coming bout of his arm but the wound had healed itself almost as quickly as it had been injured. Piers tuned into his hearing, it was as if he was watching the J’avo from above. Trying to pinpoint where the J’avo were with some kind of accuracy, Piers opened his somewhat good eye but everything still just remained blurs of movement. Piers could hear the cocking their guns again, readying theirselves to let a volley of bullets ring through the ever increasing sounds of the storm.

                Another shot went off, hitting Piers’ infected arm and Piers could not even try to stop the growl that had forced its way up his throat and could also feel the tingle of electricity arcing between both sides of his clawed arm. He could hear the J’avo getting closer, trying to shout above the storm. Piers decided to try and use the sound of the J’avo to his advantage, because they obviously had yet to realize that Piers may be blind, but he had extremely good hearing, he was able to block out sounds at will, effectively seeming like he could just mute the storm and all he heard was the J’avo. Piers started to let the electricity charge in his arm, he tried to aim at the largest concentration of the J’avo and let his arm shoot off the electricity. He easily electrocuted almost a dozen J’avo and then set part of the forest on fire while trying to kill off the rest of them.

 

~Quentin

 

_“Okay boys, so, while we are out here with the storm going on I just want you guys to practice aiming, shooting, anything that comes to mind. The weather isn’t always going to be on your side during a fight.”_

                Captain Redfield was giving them rather vague instructions but he must have felt that they should practice what they believe they need to, or, at least, that is what Quentin thought, then Chris continued on, _“you guys are going to split up into teams of two, Ed and Quentin, Jack and Andy. Report back to me or Ares before things get too rough, anything happens and we will call you over the comms.”_

                Quentin and Ed started heading off into the southern direction where there was some dense forestry and a few caves. After about two minutes of walking they could hear faint sounds of yelling and gunshots. About ten seconds later they saw a fire about half a mile away, they were walking into dangerous territory. They looked to be about a mile or two away from everyone else with as quickly as they started running towards the fire.

Ed looked over to Quentin with a fearful look on his face, _“What the hell do you think is going on over there? There shouldn’t be anyone else out here let alone having a fire fight setting the whole damn forest on fire!”_

Quentin hissed back at him, _“Quiet you idiot! There is no telling how many of them could be around here waiting for us!”_

Ed took in a deep breath to try and calm himself down but still looked around wildly, _“What do you think is going on then, Quentin?”_

_“I don’t know, but I definitely want to find out what’s happening in these woods.”_

_“Are you pancake flipping nuts Quentin?! We could get our asses shot to high heaven!”_

_“And what would you do if those people up there are just a bunch of regular civilians fighting one of those B.O.W. freaks huh? Would you just leave them all alone to die?!”_

_“Well… no… but that doesn’t mean my chicken ass is any less scared of finding out what the fuck is going on.”_

_“Well who said anything about not being scared Ed? We are all scared at some point but we just damn sure better be able to do what needs to be done when the time calls for it alright rookie?”_

Ed sighed in defeat, _“Alright, let’s go find out what is going on I guess.”_

                What they found however, was not regular people fighting a B.O.W. but rather, J’avo fighting a single, mostly humanoid B.O.W.. It had a single mutated arm, its right arm, and the arm was peppered with bullet wounds. They were closing quickly but they could see that it was starting to slow down. The J’avos were mercilessly unloading clip after clip into the B.O.W..

 _“That’s new… never knew J’avo to fight with other B.O.W.s…”_ Quentin whispered this to Ed, somewhat amazed at the sight he was seeing.

_“So… do you think we should help it? I mean, if J’avo are trying to kill it that must mean a good thing for us right?”_

                Quentin kept an eye on the progressing fight. He assumed the B.O.W. must be blind because it appeared to be shooting in the general area of J’avo rather than directly at them. He motioned for Ed to bring his rifle out and they began to pick off the J’avo. About five minutes and several dozen kills later, Quentin and Ed were the only ones left alive beside the strange B.O.W.

                The storm was starting to pick up, the wind was howling and torrents of rain started to pour onto the earth like the sky itself was crying at the appearance of this strange B.O.W. Quentin and Ed didn’t even notice when the creature walked up behind them because it was so loud. Ed freaked out and almost shot his foot off when he heard labored breathing coming from behind them.

 _“Ughh… t-thanks for t… the help, w-who are you guys?”_ His breathing was labored, he had a lot of bullet wounds in his strange arm that were closing slower and slower.

_“Hey, buddy, before we get into that let’s get your wounds taken care of, alright?”_

_“S-sure… I g-guess that’s alright.”_

_“Here, eat these while I try to cover up these wounds.”_

                Piers took what Quentin handed him and eyed it suspiciously, it was mixed herbs, although Piers could not currently recognize them because of his blind, and mostly blind eye. He ate the pills and Quentin stopped trying to patch his arm up because the B.O.W. started healing extremely fast again.

_“W-who did you guys say you were again?”_

_“Um…we’re the B.S.A.A…”_

_“The B.S.A.A… argh!”_

Quentin and Ed watched as the B.O.W. doubled over in pain clutching his head low to the ground with his left arm. _“H-hey buddy, are you alright?”_

                Quentin was kneeled down next to the creature in front of him. It looked like it was taking a lot of energy for him to stay awake. Sweat was forming increasingly quickly on his head and his mutated arm was thrumming with electricity.

_“Ughh… Redfield… Valentine… Simmons… Muller…”_

Ed looked at Quentin, _“Did he just… how in the hell does he know those names?!”_

                Suddenly, the B.O.W. stopped writhing in pain. It looked up at them with fear in its eyes. Without a single word it took off into the woods like a maniac, the sunds of its departure lost in mere seconds over the sounds of the storm.

 _“Do you think we should follow it?”_ Ed quickly asked Quentin even though it was still easy to tell how scared he obviously was.

_“Hmm… let’s at least see if we can find him again.”_

                Quentin and Ed took off in the direction the B.O.W. had gone. They found the path easily enough, there was a lot of trees with smashed portions to them, there was also evidence of some kind of wounds because they could see blood on some of the trees. They followed the trail for as slong as they could, but the path dead-ended at a cave entrance where ed thought it would be a good place to turn around.

_“Q-Quentin… I don’t think we should keep going, he already freaked out are you sure he won’t attack us?”_

                Quentin was saved from making a response when they heard the captain’s voice over the comms.

_“Quentin, Ed, where the hell are you two?! It’s been damn near an hour and you two still haven’t checked in.”_

_“Captain, can you hear me?”_ was the response Quentin rushed into the comms hoping that the Captain did not notice the uncharacteristic tone of nervousness in his voice.

_“Yeah I can hear you what the hell have you guys been up to?!”_

_“Um… Captain I’m not really sure how to explain it right now but we definitely have something to tell you.”_

_“Just hurry your asses back to base Quentin.”_

_“Copy that Captain, we’ll be back soon.”_

_~Thirty Minutes later in Captain Redfield’s office_

                Chris had been pacing for several minutes now. Quentin and Ed were sitting silently but still nervous from the ass chewing they knew they were about to get. After a couple minutes of eyeballing the recruits in front of him Chris sat down.

                _“Do you two have any **IDEA** how pissed off I am? First you don’t check in and then you come back with **MISSING** supplies?!”_

Quentin nervously cleared his throat hoping it didn’t show to the Captain, _“Sir, with all due respect Ed doesn’t need to be here, he followed me because I wanted to check something out.”_

_“Really, and what may I ask, did you want to check out that required you to use **AMMO**?”_

Quentin cleared his throat again, _“Well Sir, I know we weren’t supposed to be out fighting anything but we came across a bunch of J’avo fighting a B.O.W. which was kind of strange, he had set a little bit of the forest on fire and the J’avo weren’t letting up on him. So we figured any J’avo trying to kill a B.O.W. would be a good thing for **US** , so we started picking them off. We didn’t notice him sneak up on us afterwards but he didn’t attack us, I patched him up a bit and gave him some pills which helped him heal extremely fast because I guess with all the bullet wounds it slowed him down a lot. After that he was actually talking, asking us who we were with and when we said *B.S.A.A.* he collapsed clutching his head in pain like he was having some sort of flashback, during that he mention a few names, one of them being yours. After he stopped clutching his head he went running off into the woods with this scared look on his face like we had just killed his mother. We followed his trail through the woods and it was a… slightly disturbing sight to say the least, trees were smashed and splintered with blood on them, like he was trying to break his arm off. We followed him to the mouth of a cave but Ed here convinced me it might not be such a good idea, and then we heard you over the comms.”_

Chis looked to Ed raising his eyebrow, _“Well that is quite a mouthful of a story, is this truth Edmonds?”_

Ed looked up to Chris and looked him dead in the eyes, Ed may be many things but a liar is not one of them, _“Yes Sir, every single word of it.”_

_“Alright then, when this storm lets up you boys are going to show me where this… *friend* of yours went to, do I make myself clear?”_

_“Yes Sir.”_ Quentin and Ed both replied with a salute.

~Piers

 _“The B.S.A.A… argh!”_ Piers doubled over in pain clutching his head while thousands of forgotten moments flashed through his head like water when a dam breaks.

 _“Redfield… Valentine… Simmons… Muller…”_ the man kneeling down by Piers said something but it wasn’t even comprehensible and so Piers couldn’t even make out what he said.

                In an instant, Piers remembered everything, Ada Wong, the underwater oil facility, the C-Virus, everything he had been missing since he woke up on that beach was rushing into his mind. He looked back up at the soldiers for a split second; they were wearing North American B.S.A.A. badges. Piers remembered Chris, his friend, mentor, and Captain. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if the B.S.A.A. decided to put him down and Chris was the one who had to do it.

                So, Piers ran. He ran as quickly and as far as he could. He doesn’t remember why but somewhere along the way he started bashing his arm into trees. It might have been some subconscious effort to try and get rid of the mutated appendage that was now his arm. He splintered trees and drew blood, but the wounds just kept healing. He found a cave and ducked inside of it while the storm still raged outside to get some sleep and just hope that nobody would ever find him.


	2. Detached

Chapter 2: Detached

“We fear what we do not understand and try to destroy what we fear.” ~Unknown

                It took over twelve hours for the storm to let up. There was flooding in the forest and lightning strikes were lighting the large but quick fires all over the place. Quentin and Ed were stuck in the base that whole time, they actually began to be worried about the man-creature thing they had seen earlier. Could they truly still call this one even in a sense, a traditional B.O.W.? There was more than just random J’avo out there for that thing to worry about, would the man freeze to death? That one in itself was doubtful but still possible as the night went on. Could he drown? Maybe, there was a lot of flooding but the caves seemed to be getting hit harder than anything else, but would there really be that **_much_** rain? Then there were the trees that they were still confused about, what they had seen while following its trail, the mashed trees and the dried blood even though it was in the middle of a storm, would it be dead, was it trying to kill itself?

                As the sun started to come up Chris got Quentin and Ed together so they could take him to their *friend*. Quentin half hoped that Chris would have forgotten about what they said but it was obvious that Quentin would have to give Chris’ memory more credit in the future even though he was much older. They headed out of the gate at eight thirty in the morning, but not after Chris had ordered them to come well-armed and stocked with supplies. When Chris left them to get his own supplies Quentin told Ed to only bring a pistol, so they didn’t freak the thing out too badly. Ed agreed, but Quentin had a nagging suspicion it would take a lot more than what they could bring to stop the thing if it went on a rampage.

                The ground was still a mess from the storm the second they stepped outside. Chris had noticed that Quentin and Ed were barely armed, nothing but a pistol, but he just gave them a questioning look and nothing more, he had learned to trust his men more over the years. Chris motioned for Quentin and Ed to lean on, which they did, although Chris could tell Ed was still pretty nervous, although not nearly as much as he was yesterday.

                It took them quite a while to get back to where their initial fight had been and Chris could see a lot of sent shells on the ground around one location, almost as if they had aimed at a single person. Chris started to dig around in the mud around where he saw large groups of shells and found dozens maybe even hundreds more just mere centimeters into the mud. Chris was actually surprised at the sheer number of the shells and took to look at Quentin and Ed.

 _“How many J’avo did you guys say there was?”_ Chris was eyeing them suspiciously now.

 _“About three dozen or more, Captain.”_ Quentin cleared his throat before responding to Chris, and when Chris looked from Quentin to Ed he just got a nod of affirmation that Quentin was not lying.

                Looking around a little bit more Chris also saw what appeared to be dried blood, but was amazed that it was still here after the storm. Chris pulled out a Q-tip and a tube to collect some of the blood for testing, he knew there was something strange going on, because he had never seen blood from any person _or_ B.O.W. that didn’t wash away with water, especially with that crazy storm they had.

                Chris kept on searching through the mud for anything that looked odd, and he noticed something that had him stopping dead in his movement. He found an extremely deep footprint in the mud, the initials _*P.N.*_ were visible. Chris’ brow furrowed in thought, he recognized the impression of the boot but couldn’t let himself hope to believe what he thought this meant. Even though the thoughts of the boot impression disturbed him, Chris remembered when Piers had come up with the idea of having everyone’s initials engraved into the bottom of their boots, in case the body of a soldier could not be identified, that way they always had some hidden way of being able to find out who it was.

Chris was still in thought but was snapped out of it when Quentin kneeled down next to him, putting one hand on his Captain’s shoulder and the other pointing off a short distance away.

 _“This is where the fight was, we were over there near the trees, I convinced Ed to help me pick the J’avo off.”_ Quentin nodded toward Ed who smiled at the acknowledgement.

                Quentin continued pointing to an area in the tress about thirty feet or more away. Chris followed them both over to their previously mentioned hiding spot once he was done with his inspection in the mud, and yet again, Chris saw dried blood, but this time on the trees. The blood was still very unnerving to Chris to say the least, because blood would normally wash away from anything, but this blood however, seemed to have a different consistency to it, which almost frightened Alpha’s leader.

                Chris collected some of the blood that was on the tree with a Q-tip and placed it into another separate tube from the one had had done earlier. Chris had about five tubes left to use from the collection supplies he had grabbed before leaving the base, in case he had found something that should be studied.

                Quentin and Ed motioned to Chris when they saw that he was done collecting a sample. When Chris looked over at them Quentin nodded at the path they would be following. The rest of the trees along the *path* were smashed and charred, most likely from the lightning that the storm had created. Yet again, Chris saw more blood, it was unnerving him more and more, but this time it looked completely different from the other two he had found. The blood on the trees further into the forest looked almost untouched even though the rest of the tree would be smashed and charred, when Chris went up and touched some of the blood, it almost felt like tree sap, sticky and slow to move.

                Quentin and Ed were yet again leading Chris along the *path*, almost effortlessly, as if they had taken this way every day of their lives. They reached the cave they had seen the creature run into and turned on their lights before going in. The mouth of the cave was slightly eerie in nature, it seemed to form the shape of a giant jaw, pointed rocks hanging at the entrance like teeth. Inside the cave was another story however, it seemed almost peaceful, dark and damp, but peaceful, there wasn’t a single sound to be heard. Unfortunately though, the further they went into the cave, the more flooded it became, they were soon walking in about an inch and a half of water. They traveled even further into the cave and the terrain just kept on getting worse from the water, there were extremely dangerous rocks under the water, almost like pit falls, because one step would send you plunging down right onto one of those rocks and they were sharper than a newly sharpened chainsaw.

                After about ten minutes of searching through the god forsaken cave and almost drowning in pits once or twice, the group stumbled upon a tiny makeshift camp. The only visible thing they could find to mark this as a camp was the dying fire, Quentin and Ed began to wonder if water even reached this far into the cave because of how dry the area was. There was almost no sign of how recent someone had been here aside from the dying fire, Quentin figured they may have left within the last five minutes or so, possibly to go and find more wood to burn. The three men looked to each other and had a silent agreement to wait for whoever it was that was using this area as a camp but then suddenly they heard pained noises and banging deeper in the cave.

                The three men looked at each other nervously, Ed more so than the other two, and slowly they began to inch their way over in the direction of the noises. They had to duck between narrow walls and suffer through more water and nearly falling into a few pits a couple more times, but they knew they were going to make it because the sounds only continued to get louder. As they were getting ever closer to the sound of the noise they started hearing things being yelled, like someone was talking to their self.

_“Break off already you damn thing!”_

                Quentin and Ed saw Chris pause in front of them at the sound of that voice. Quentin didn’t fail to see how Chris almost dropped everything he was carrying, a look of pure shock ridden across his face. His eyes were wide open and his face had paled almost like he had seen a ghost. Ed put his hand on their Captain’s shoulder and Chris almost jumped straight up at the sudden contact, looking back at them he silently mouthed the words _*I know that voice.*_ Ed and Quentin both nodded at Chris and they continued on into the cave.

                When they got to the source of the noise Chris motioned for Ed and Quentin to be as silent as possible. They were crouched behind a low wall of rock watching the B.O.W. smash its arm into the rocks and walls over and over again, noticing how it seemed to never be harmed but they could also visibly see the B.O.W. slowing down from all the swinging. They continued to watch it swing viciously time and time again, but when the creature seemed to be so tired that it was about to faint Ed accidentally kicked a rock that went flying down into the water, the creature turned around towards the sound and it was now obvious that it could not see them, or at least not see them well enough to make out any details. It croaked out only one simple question.

 _“W-who’s there?”_ then the B.O.W. fell face first into the water, before it fell Quentin could notice the sweat on its forehead, and he could hear its heavy breathing from exhaustion, then the three hurried out to grab it out because it had fallen into one of those areas that was a pit disguised by the water, and he was sinking fast.

 

~Piers

                Piers awoke in the cave while some of the storm was still going and decided to try and explore. He noticed how a good portion of the cave was filled with up to two inches of freezing water, something that would not be a pleasure to have to sleep in. Piers walked around the cave until he found a dry spot and sat down to try and relax. He noticed some soak wet wood nearby and grabbed it. He put it into a small little pile in the middle of his so called camp grounds and charged up his arm a bit, he hated doing it, because it reminded him of something that could no longer work. It took him two tries to actually set the wood on fire, but the warmth and comfort it provided was a sweet relief to Piers.

                After about ten minutes Piers started to hear voices and movement inside of the cave, they were not the sounds of J’avo or other B.O.W.s but rather of people, but Piers had no desire to actually be seen like this. He got up from his camp site and went running deeper into the cave, having scouted it out fairly well he could now tell where most of the pits were and how deep they were. Piers got to a somewhat secluded part of the cave and stopped running. He looked down at his arm with disgust, this was the reason he didn’t want anyone to see him. He didn’t want to be seen as the monster that the C-Virus had turned so many people into. It was his own fault though, he remembered being thrown against a wall, his arm mutilated by debris, and he had injected himself with it to save his Captain. Nobody had seen him do it other than Chris, and Chris had probably just told everyone that he had died down there. Piers doubt that Chris would have actually told them _how_ he had died, that he had injected himself with the C-Virus, turned into a monster, and used the last of his remaining willpower to shove Chris into the escape pod and leave _himself_ behind.

                Piers started bashing his arm into the wall and rocks that he could find that seemed sharp enough to do damage. It was to no avail however, nothing worked enough that Piers could even feel anything; the arm just seemed to retaliate to him by becoming harder and harder, turning like it was almost solid metal when Piers tried to break it off of his body. When he was started to become extremely tired from the swinging he started to slow, that is when he noticed a sound. He turned around in the direction the sound had come from, there was a rock that had just fallen, and he could hear the shallow breathing of three other people in the cave.

 _“W-Who’s there?”_ Piers called out before finally falling forward from exhaustion.

~General View

                The three men only watched for a split second as the B.O.W. slumped forward from exhaustion falling into the water. Chris was the first to react, springing from his spot and diving straight down into the water. Quentin and Ed were still frozen in place, but almost immediately after Chris hit the water they were shaken out of there shocked states and ran down to the water’s edge. Quentin and Ed reached the edge of the water just as Chris came up, gasping for air and pulling the B.O.W. up with him. Quentin and Chris hurriedly performed CPR on the B.O.W., Chris pumping his chest and Quentin blowing air into his mouth. After about thirty seconds they heard pained and almost silent groans from the B.O.W. indicating he was alive but it remained unconscious.

                Quentin and Ed watched as Chris was hurriedly trying to wake the B.O.W. up. They weren’t sure what to say but it was obvious to at least Quentin that this was the man that got left behind in China. Quentin put his hand on Chris’ shoulder, earning a flinch from the older soldier but when he turned and looked at them both Chris started to calm down.

_“Help me get him out of here?”_

                It was somewhat of a question and an order at the same time, Chris being unsure as to how to phrase it. Quentin and Ed both nodded in understanding. Quentin helped Chris get the B.O.W. up and they both began walking with it, one of its arms slung around each of their shoulders, and Ed led the way out of the cave. To say that the trip into the cave was easy would be an understatement compared to going out, the entire time they took to get out of the cave was spent with Quentin and Chris half dragging half helping the B.O.W. move. The short amount of time spent coming in when they had to walk single file was now spent with two people walking sideways and one being half dragged half carried through the cave. It took them almost an hour to get out of the cave and almost another two just to get back to base.

                The second they got back to base Quentin and Ed were aware of the questioning and suspicious looks from everybody else. Chris however, seemed oblivious, only focusing on the man that they were half dragging through the place. Chris and Quentin headed for the office Chris used during off-duty hours or when he needed to fill out paperwork, and once inside they sat Piers down on the couch, earning a somewhat content sigh from the man in his sleep. Chris hurriedly pulled out his phone to try and call Jill to get her take on the situation; it rang three times before she picked up.

_“This is Jill Valentine. Who am I speaking to?”_

_“C’mon Jill, you mean to tell me you don’t check before answering?”_

Jill perked up a bit from the terrible day she had been having with paperwork at the sound of Chris’ voice, _“Hey Chris! Wait… you said you would call if something happened… ugh what did you do this time Bearfield?”_

Chris chuckled at hearing the old name Jill had given him years ago, _“Well… something did happen and I’m not really sure how to say it but…”_

Jill sighed and stopped Chris where he was, _“Just tell me what you need Chris, you don’t even have to explain it to me.”_

_“Well, a helicopter, hospital, and the best C-Virus experts we have.”_

_“Done, the helicopter will be there in five minutes, so you better be ready, and good luck with whatever this is Chris. I’ll stop by the hospital to check on how things are going; the pilot will already know the directions.”_

                Chris breathed a sigh of relief; maybe something would finally go his way today. When Ed shot Chris a questioning look he explained to them both that there would be a helicopter here within five minutes to pick them up and get their *friend* to a hospital. Ed and Quentin each took one of Piers’ arms and let Chris lead the way, hoping to give him a little bit of a break. Ed, even though he tended to be the most nervous out of everyone, actually took the mutated arm, which Quentin was glad for; he would definitely feel strange with that thing over the back of his head, feeling the electricity arcing through it. On the way to the helipad the members of Alpha once again got questioning looks from everyone else on base, but luckily the rest of Alpha had heard about what was going on. Ares, Jack, and Andy were all waiting at the helicopter for the rest of their team, and once they saw them walking towards it they rushed out to help get the man into the helicopter as well.

                They could all finally relax once they got the man situated into the helicopter along with the rest of the team, although he was still unconscious. Chris looked to the three members of Alpha that were not with them when they had gone into the forest earlier that day, and all he got back from them was a nod in agreement and a thumbs up, indicating that they would be along for the ride.

                The helicopter set down after about fifteen minutes in the air and the entirety of Alpha Team was met by a team of doctors and scientists who, against Chris’ protests, stayed determined in the fact that they should take Piers along while the rest of the team waited. The team sat in the waiting room of the hospital for what seemed like days, even though it had only been about six hours but Alpha Team was starting to doze off into sleep, Chris was the only one who remained awake almost vigilantly. Then, as it was nearing midnight, the doctor from earlier came out into the waiting room looking around for them, and when she saw them she walked over. She looked at Chris and said one thing to him.

_“I have something to tell you, and it is about that arm of his.”_


	3. First Breath

Chapter 3: First Breath

“If someone truly loves you, you will never have to change for them, changing for something you love is not love at all.” ~Unknown

 

                Chris was still reeling in shock from the conversation he had with the doctor just a few minutes ago. She came into the waiting room of the hospital looking for him and when she found him, Chris got news he had never expected to hear. The doctor tried to get him to respond or at least to say _something_ but he just kept sitting there, staring into empty space. Chris isn’t sure how long he sat there like that, but he eventually went to look for the doctor who had given him the news while still replaying bits and pieces of the news through his head.

_“It’s not really his arm anymore.”_

                That piece of the news was the first one that she had given Chris and he almost fell out of his chair with his mouth hanging open. He had seen Piers infect himself, and all up until he pushed Chris into the escape pod Chris could see that he had control of his actions. So that Piers’ arm just simply wasn’t _his_ anymore scared the Captain. He didn’t know whether Piers would live or if they would have to kill him because of the virus.

                Chris found the doctor working in an office, looking at testing results and other documents concerning Piers. Chris went up to ask her if he could go see Piers, and she said that he would be able to, but she wanted to explain some of the harder parts about the testing to him. Chris wouldn’t really understand what she was saying but he obliged. The only part that Chris could really understand was where she had explained that every time that they had tried a different way of getting a sample from the arm for testing the arm changed in texture so that they couldn’t get anything. They finally got a little bit by tricking the arm and used a second technique before it had time to react and change.

                After a few minutes of explaining the doctor walked with Chris out of the room. She lead him to Piers’ room and after she unlocked it and let Chris in she simply closed the door behind him after telling Chris that nobody would interrupt unless he pressed the panic button. Chris slowly walked into the room as quietly as he could. He grabbed a chair and put it down next to the bed Piers was in. Chris just sat there for a while looking at him, trying to figure out so many things about the unconscious sniper.

                His face looked worse and better at the same time from when Chris had seen him infect himself. Signs of infection and the C-Virus itself weren’t as present in his face, but you could see that his eyes were cloudy. Tree root like objects seeming to snake their way across his eyes, almost like his eyes were blood shot, but they worked across his eyes from left to right and were a dark brown color like the earth. Chris looked at the arm, it seemed smaller than what he had seen it almost seven hours ago but that wouldn’t tell him much. Nobody knew completely what the virus did, and then there was the enhanced version of the virus, like Simmons, he was able to transform into several different things. Seeing the arm look smaller did not give Chris much hope to look forward to. Chris could only wish that the syringe Piers had injected himself with would be one that didn’t turn him into a complete monster.

                Chris suddenly got a call on his phone and he saw Piers shift in his sleep grumbling something. Chris looked at his phone and didn’t recognize the number, although the caller I.D. said *Jake Muller* Chris was concerned as to how he would have even gotten Chris’ number to begin with.

 _“This is Chris, who is this?”_ Chris’ tone of anxiety was obvious through the phone.

 _“What’s up Jarhead, I heard your puppy is in the hospital?”_ Chris almost threw the phone against the wall when he heard the voice and that it had called Piers his _puppy_ but he refrained himself from doing it.

 _“What the hell do you want Muller, and why do you care if he is or not?”_ Jake seemed as calm as can be while Chris was silently seething into the phone.

 _“Because of you guys Jarhead, I may not really like you guys but that puppy of yours risked his life to save me and Sherry, and that is worth more than any job could pay me.”_ Jake’s sincerity was obvious through the phone, although Chris didn’t want to hear it.

 _“So what if he saved you guys? He saved me too, and I’ll be damned if I let you anywhere near him without a complete check first Muller.”_ Chris was disgusted that Jake Muller had the balls to even try and say anything to him about Piers.

Chris heard a few muffled sounds in the background before he heard a new voice on the phone, the voice of a young and caring woman whom he had rescued back in China, _“Chris? Chris are you there, this is Sherry.”_

                Chris’ eyes went wide for a moment, he was surprised that Sherry was anywhere near the mercenary, before responding though, Chris noticed Piers move again in his sleep, so he got up from his chair and walked towards the door out of earshot of Piers. On the way over Chris momentarily glanced out of the window. It was a beautiful night outside, the sun had just the barest glint in the distance and the sky was turning a majestic black and purple color. Chris mumbled to himself how it was horrible that Piers had to be in _here_ of all places on a night like this.

 _“Yeah Sherry, I’m here.”_ Chris was relieved to be able to talk to someone other than Muller.

Sherry had an audible sigh into the phone, _“Oh thank god. Sorry about Jake, he’s still kind of a pain in the butt when it comes to military people. Anyway, we heard that Piers is in a hospital, is it true? Did he really survive all of that just to be infected?”_

Chris sighed, he figured if Sherry knew Piers was in a hospital that she would already know about _why_ he was in the hospital, _“Yes Sherry, Piers lived and he is at a hospital and **yes** … he’s infected, but it’s not as serious as you think it is.”_

Chris could hear the shock and worry in her voice with how quickly she started talking back through the phone after he was done, _“Not as serious as I think?! Chris he injected himself with one of those **enhanced** C-Virus syringes, how could I **NOT** think this is serious?!”_

Chris chuckled into the phone and Sherry sat there in silence, confused as to why Chris was laughing, _“Chris? What the heck is going on, why are you **laughing**?”_

Chris cleared his throat and stopped laughing before he continued, _“Sherry if you are that concerned just come on down to the hospital, I know you are in the area and I will tell you **exactly** what the doctor told me like thirty minutes ago ok?”_

Sherry took a deep breath and was getting anxious with Chris, she also did not fail to notice the questioning look she was getting from Jake while he listened to one side of the conversation, _“Ok fine Chris you win, we will be there in about an hour.”_

Chris smiled when he replied to her but it died quickly. Chris loved it when Sherry was around she was an amazing person, sometimes Sherry even reminded him of his little sister Claire, but he still hated Muller, partly on the account he was Wesker’s son but mostly the fact that he was a gun for hire. Mercenaries always did disgust Chris to his very core, _“See you then Sherry, and **please** keep a muzzle on that mouth your Mercenary has, I won’t deal with him talking any shit about or even around Piers.”_

Sherry smirked looking at Jake before replying, _“Sure thing Chris, don’t worry about that I’ve got it handled.”_

                Chris was glad that Sherry had agreed to try and keep Jake quiet. He remembered back in Edonia how it had taken just one word out of Jake to get Piers pissed off. While Chris didn’t think Piers would be awake by the time they got there he didn’t want him waking up to Jake calling him a jarhead. Chris decided to take a breather before anyone else got to the hospital to talk to him or Piers. He moved to slip out the door but then thought that he should leave some kind of note behind in case Piers happened to wake up, he grabbed a pen and some paper and on the note he wrote _*It’s good to have you back. Don’t go too crazy ok? Some people still want to get to know you more.* ~Signed C.R._

                After leaving the note Chris slipped out of the room and walked down the hallway into the waiting room. The rest of Alpha was still asleep but just as well Chris wanted to take a walk alone. He walked out of the front of the hospital and took a left, walking down the street into the town some. He replayed a little bit of what the doctor had told him earlier through his mind as the crisp and cool night air calmed his nerves.

_“So doc, what does all of this mean then?”_

_“Well, as far as we can tell, the arm isn’t **his** but the arm also is not particularly controlling him at all, or even worsening his condition.”_

_“What do you mean doc, are we not able to cure him or even treat him for this freaking thing?”_

_“Honestly sir, I’m not exactly sure. The virus isn’t spreading if that is what you are wondering, but unfortunately, I believe that if we were to try and use Jake Muller’s antibodies that it might potentially make this all worse.”_

                Chris had gone silent after she had said that. They couldn’t do anything for Piers because they were scared that his arm would react horribly to Muller’s antibodies considering it was an enhanced virus and nobody knew anything about how it worked. Chris was suddenly snapped from his thoughts when he heard a banging sound in an alley he had just gone past. He turned back and went down the alley and found a typical but sad sight for a city. He found a dog scrounging around burrowing its head into trash cans trying to find food, it looked extremely starved because Chris could see its ribs sticking out.

                Chris slowly walked forward, trying not to startle the dog that was still looking around for food. Chris crouched down to the balls of his feet and looked at the dog. He made a sharp whistling sound and the dog almost shot out of the trash can that it was in, it stood still for a moment, staring at him with wide fearful eyes. Chris slowly put out his arm, with his palm up to show that he wasn’t a threat. He gave the dog a genuine smile and she slowly walked forward, eying Chris and he hoped that it wouldn’t bolt away. He doesn’t know why but he slightly remembered something about Piers loving dogs, and he thought that helping this one out and showing to Piers could be just the thing to keep his spirits up.

                Slowly, the dog inched forward to Chris, once the dog had gotten to him Chris slowly moved his hand to the top of its head to slowly pet it and scratch behind the dog’s ears to calm it down. It worked thankfully, the dog seemed to calm down a lot and didn’t make any moves to run away, it even seemed to warm up to Chris and got closer to him, nuzzling his face. Chris slowly backed up and walked out of the alley and he was glad to see the dog follow him. He walked with the dog to a nearby pet store that let anyone walk in with animals. Thankfully for Chris this was a 24/7 pet store and it wasn’t very busy, which was good considering Chris might look like he was someone who abused animals, which he definitely was **_not_**.

                Once inside Chris was stopped by one of the people that worked there and he told Chris that all pets had to be on a leash or in a carrier. Chris hurriedly explained that he had found the dog foraging for food in an alleyway. The man sighed and looked down at the dog, he asked what Chris needed and explained to him that homeless animals were a common sight around the city. Chris said that he would take whatever the man thought he needed, but some water and food for sure along with a collar and leash. The man nodded in agreement and went off to get what Chris needed.

                The man returned after about five minutes with a bag of food, gallon of water, and a collar, leash, and a jacket for the dog since it was getting cold outside. Chris thanked the man and tried to pay for the items but the man held up his hands and said that it was on the house, the store was glad to give items to people that found homeless animals on the streets and took them in. This warmed Chris’ heart, it wasn’t often that you found a store willing to give stuff away to someone just because they happened to rescue an animal off the street, Chris made a mental note to bring Piers here one day with the dog.

                After feeding the dog a little bit and giving it some water to drink Chris also bought a backpack and stuck the rest of the stuff inside of it and slung it around his shoulders so he could carry it. He put on the collar which fit perfectly around the dog’s neck, and attached the leash and began walking out of the store. On the way back to the hospital Chris started going over names in his head trying to decide what to name the dog.

_*Hmm… Jade? No, Topaz? No, Zoey? No, hmm… oh! Hope would be a good name! Maybe a certain someone will get a little bit himself when he wakes up.*_

                Chris smiled down at the dog he was walking with, Hope would be a good name for this dog and he knew it. Embarrassingly for Chris though, he wasn’t much of a pet person so he had no clue at all what kind of dog this was. He would surely have to ask Piers once he got back to the hospital. Still looking at the dog Chris noticed that there were a few marks on its sides like it had been hit before or fought with another animal Chris couldn’t really tell, he wasn’t an expert in this kind of thing. He was definitely glad that the man from the store had given him a jacket for the dog though, it was getting pretty cold outside and Chris was starting to shiver himself.

                Chris was nearing the entrance to the hospital now, he had noticed Jill’s car on his way into the parking lot and wondered where she might be, he also wondered if she knew why he needed the hospital already, or if she was waiting to ask him herself. Chris walked into the front of the hospital and into the waiting room where Alpha was still asleep in their chairs. Chris started walking over to Piers’ room and he noticed Jill pacing in the hallway outside the door. Chris swallowed down a clump of anxiousness that was forming in his throat and walked up to Jill to get the conversation over with while he still could.

Jill saw Chris and she stopped pacing, staring him down with a curious look on her face before talking to him, _“Chris, are they serious in this hospital? That’s actually your old sniper in there?!”_

Chris motioned for Jill to calm down because she was almost yelling and he put his finger to his mouth to urge her to be quiet before he answered, _“Yes, that is certainly Piers in there. Why, you aren’t having second thoughts about this are you?”_

Jill let out an exasperated sigh, _“No Chris, god no I’m not, it’s just… I was **not** expecting that to be what you needed all of this for. Are you sure this is a good idea?”_

Chris looked at Jill with stone cold determination on his face and she backed down for a moment before looking him straight back in the eyes, _“Jill, this man risked his own life to save my worthless ass, there isn’t anyone else in the world I would want to go to the ends of the earth for, I would die just to make sure he has another chance at life, he gave all he had and then some during that last mission, I would think you would be able to understand that.”_

                Jill chewed on her bottom lip nervously, she knew Chris was not someone to mess with, and she knew some of the details of that mission in China that Chris had not even put in the file, so she knew what he said about Piers was true. Jill and Chris stood at a standoff for a moment, neither person making a move to speak or go anywhere. After a few moments in the standoff Jill noticed the dog at Chris’ side and she gave him a questioning look.

 _“Where did you get the dog?”_ Jill was actually surprised because she had never taken Chris for a person to have any pets.

Chris looked down at the dog and then to Jill and a sheepish grin formed its way onto his face, _“I uh… found the dog while I was kind of walking around getting some air. I remembered Piers telling me something about loving dogs but I don’t really remember what. I sort of figured that a rescued dog might keep his hopes up to beat this thing. Anyway, I’m going to go into the room now if you don’t mind.”_

Jill sighed but allowed Chris to go into the room and did not follow, she figured she had already done enough damage for one night so she did not want to try and push it. Once Chris was in the room he once again went to the chair by Piers’ bed, but he did not fail to realize that the sniper was awake, even with how dark the room was. Apparently Piers must have been deep in thought because he made no reaction when Chris came in, and Chris knew that Piers had hypersensitive hearing right now. Before he got even six inches closer to the bed from where he saw Piers awake, he noticed Piers was reading the card and thinking out loud about it.

Piers was intently reading the card, the ghost of a smile coming across his face but his eyes were watering like he was about to cry, _“*It’s good to have you back. Don’t go too crazy ok? Some people still want to get to know you more.* Eh Chris…? Well... there is nothing left of me to get to know anymore, I’m a fucking monster now.”_ Piers sighed and set the card down on the night stand and began rubbing his face with his hand.

_“Why the hell did I have to talk to those damn soldiers? Why on earth didn’t I try harder to lose them in the woods and why the fuck couldn’t I break off my damn mutated arm.”_

This is when Chris stepped more fully into the room, clearing his throat nervously before talking to Piers, _“I uh, I might be able to answer some of those questions for you, unless you still think there isn’t anything left of you to get to know more…”_ Chris let that hang in the air but he just got a confused look from Piers and sighed. Chris figured he might as well get this conversation out of the way as quickly as he could, and hopefully the sniper wouldn’t hate him by the night’s end.

_“So, what do you want to hear Piers? Do you want to hear what the doc told me or what?”_

_“No, I want to hear why you people didn’t just leave me alone Captain, I’m a monster now and nothing is going to change that.”_

_“Piers, listen to me, you aren’t a monster. Monsters don’t go around **willingly** injecting themselves with the C-Virus and saving someone’s life!”_

_“Saving someone’s life or not Captain, what happens when this thing takes over and I start killing people, what the hell was it all for then?”_

_“Piers, you aren’t going to turn into a monster, I can almost guarantee you that.”_

_“Oh yeah, and just how do you plan on doing that, Captain?”_

                For the first time since Chris had found the dog earlier that night, Hope barked at Piers. She didn’t seem scared or angry at him but rather she jumped up onto the small bed he was in and laid down next to him. Chris watched as several emotions crossed Piers’ face, confusion, sadness, happiness, and best of all, **_hope_**.

Chris chuckled at the sight, _“Somebody seems to want to get to know you more eh Piers?”_

Piers had pure joy beaming through his eyes but he didn’t even look up at Chris when he responded, _“She already knows me well enough, I haven’t seen her in years! The last time I remember seeing her was a week before I joined the B.S.A.A. I used to help rescue dogs that were homeless; it was some of the best times of my life. Esperanza here was in a shelter I was helping but the last I heard of it the place burned down soon after I joined up. Where on earth did you find her Captain?”_

Chris smiled, he was glad that Piers was feeling so genuinely happy right now, _“Well, I left that note and then I went out to get some fresh air. I was kind of lost in thought and heard a crash from a trash can then I found her in the alley. I thought of a name for her after a little while and thought Hope might be good, but I see she already has a name.”_

Piers gave Chris a genuinely amused laugh, _“Chris, those names are one in the same, just a different language.”_

Chris turned a few shades of red and rubbed the back of his head, _“Well um… I was never really good at trying to learn another language…”_

Piers smiled at Chris and they held each other’s gaze for a moment, Piers turned red first and looked away before nervously asking Chris a question, _“So um… you said you could answer questions about my arm? What is wrong with it exactly?”_

                Hope had been curled up next to Piers this whole time silent. Her head was neatly rested on Piers’ chest while he was still lying in the bed, her head rising and falling in rhythm with Piers’ breathing. Chris smiled at the sight, the two seemed to genuinely be happy together, and Chris inwardly wished that Piers would learn to take a hint.

_“Well, I had a conversation with the doctor a while ago, and it was mostly just me sitting there while she gave me an extremely **long** explanation of it all, if you don’t mind the wait for me to tell you all of it?”_

Piers smiled and laughed at Chris, _“Not at all Captain, if it means I know when this stupid arm is coming off.”_

Chris’ smile wavered a little bit, _“Well, that is the bad part, unfortunately. They don’t really know **when** it will come off, but what they can say for certain is that it is not really controlled by **you** or by **itself**. They told me that it is pretty much just a shell created from that enhanced C-Virus you used, like a partial cocoon with a defense mechanism in it, meaning your electricity. They think that the arm is pretty much just a covering that can adapt while your normal arm heals, and they think that as soon as your arm is done healing then the cocoon-arm thing will disappear. “_

Piers perked up a bit during Chris’ explanation while he was absently scratching behind Hope’s ears, _“So, you mean to tell me that as far as we know this is basically just a freaky super cast for my arm?”_

Chris chuckled at his generalization of the whole thing, _“Yeah, I guess you could say that, but hey, you need some rest ok? You two go to sleep and I’ll talk to you some more when you wake up.”_

Piers sighed; sometimes Chris was like his mom trying to get him to go to sleep, _“Alright Captain, I’ll see you in the morning.”_

                Chris turned the light off and settled down into the chair next to Piers’ bed. He listened to the rhythmic breathing of Hope and Piers. Chris soon started dozing off to the sound of their breathing himself. Tomorrow would be a good day indeed.


	4. Eye of the Storm

Chapter 4: Eye of the Storm

“Running from what you are will only bring you closer to realizing it.” ~Unknown

 

                Chris awoke in the morning in a completely different place than where he had been the night before. Chris went from a perfectly white room with a glass window giving a nice view outside night and day, to waking up in a bed that seemed completely foreign to him. He figured he was still in a hospital sure, it still looked like one, but he had no clue where he was or why he was there, the room was completely different from the one Piers had been in.

                Chris slowly got up out of the bed he was in to stretch his limbs, and they popped and cracked from being out of use for so long. With an agonizing groan and still feeling as tired as can be, Chris slowly started to move around and go out of the room. Once he was out of the room he took a left heading towards a sign that was pointing towards the elevators. Chris passed a couple people on his way there, and they gave him suspicious looks like they didn’t trust him being there. Chris just chalked up all of the odd behavior he was seeing to the fact that he didn’t even know where he was.

                Chris reached the elevator and was glad to see a map of the building. He was on floor one, where the waiting room and overnight visitors stayed while they were waiting for someone. That was strange though, Chris didn’t remember having to go up any stairs or elevators to get to Piers’ room last night. Was he going insane, was it all just a dream? Chris ignored the elevator for the time being and went to go look for some help at the nurse’s desk. When he got there he was surprised to find that there was nobody there to talk to. That was very strange to him considering that he was in the middle of a hospital and had seen some three dozen or so people walking around.

                Chris stepped away from the desk still confused as to why there was nobody there to speak to. He walked around the waiting room and found a couple members of Alpha Team. Quentin and Ares were still there but nobody else was. Quentin was still awake, but Ares was fast asleep right now, snoring like an elephant in the jungle. Chris walked over and sat down next to Quentin who raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything to him. Chris decided to break the silence and turned to look at him.

_“So uh, do you remember why we are here? I kind of woke up in a bed and had no clue how I got there.”_

Quentin looked at Chris with regret on his face; he really didn’t want to tell the Captain the news if he couldn’t even remember it. _“Well… you remember the guy we brought here last night? Well he kind of…freaked out and went on a rampage when the doctors came in to check on him. They tried to give him some medicine while he was asleep and he just woke up and started rampaging all over the place. He killed almost a dozen people before they… put him down, I’m sorry Captain.”_

                Chris took a few minutes to register Quentin’s words; he just sat there with his mouth hanging open. Chris was at a loss for words, the last he remembered Piers was in complete control of himself and he was even happy. What the heck happened to him after Chris went to sleep last night? Did the doctors actually _lie_ to them; did they really lie to him just so they wouldn’t freak out? Or did they really not know this would happen? Chris was snapped out of it when Quentin put his hand on Chris’ shoulder to try and reassure him.

 _“They uh, haven’t taken him away yet… if you still want to go see him before he’s gone, Chris.”_ Quentin gave Chris such a look of sympathy that Chris thought he must have done this dozens of times in his life.

                Chris swallowed down a lump of anxiety that burned his throat, tears were brimming at the corners of his eyes and they stung. Chris had no idea what to think, he was so happy to finally have Piers back. Chris thought about it for a moment and how cruel irony could be. Piers survived countless encounters with J’avo and other infected, he infected himself with the C-Virus to save his captain, even survived the underwater facility and somehow found his way to dry land. Irony truly was a cold heartless bitch, Piers had survived all of that just to be shot dead in a hospital because he had gone on a rampage and started killing people.

                Chris looked back to Quentin and nodded for him to show Chris the way to where Piers was. Chris needed closure, there was no way that he could leave this place without having some kind of closure, especially after the slight mental breakdown he had after China. After they rescued him from the escape pod Chris didn’t want to talk to anyone for weeks. Chris had slowly sunken into a quiet depression while the world still revolved around him. They were slowly but surely beating back the C-Virus, and without the help of the renowned Chris Redfield. Although, Chris and the rest of the world could never really have believed it had they openly said _without_ Chris Redfield, because Chris had helped to save Jake Muller, and so had Piers. Chris would be damned to hell if he ever let the world not give Piers Nivans the credit he deserved, but now he was just going to be remembered as some monster that went on a rampage inside of a hospital killing people.

                Chris kept an eye on his surroundings as Quentin led him out the front of the building. Between two sliding glass doors and into a cold morning with a small bit of snow on the ground Chris saw several B.S.A.A. vehicles gathered around a body bag on a stretcher. Quentin kept ahead of Chris and stopped at the edge of the ring of people. The crowd of people parted for Chris as he walked forward. Everyone looked at him with sympathetic faces, but Chris would not take their sympathy, he only wanted closure at this point. He continued his dread march forward and Jill was the one closest to the bag. Jill gave him a nod and told him she was sorry, that she wished it had not come to this, but the words didn’t even register to Chris as he stared down at the body bag before him.

                Chris motioned for Jill to unzip the bag. She did it slowly and kept an eye on Chris, watching his face for any kind of response. Slowly the zipper came down, revealing Piers’ dead face. He still looked very much the same as he had last night, mutated arm, strange root like objects covering his eyes, still the same old Piers that Chris had found after that terrible storm. There was only one single solitary thing that looked different on Piers, and that was the bullet wound in the middle of his forehead. Chris just simply stared, tears once again stinging the edges of his vision.

                That is what happened, in front of so many people from the B.S.A.A. Chris Redfield began to cry, nobody had ever seen this before, not even Jill. Even though nobody had seen this before, they all understood why he was doing it, Piers Nivans had given more for the B.S.A.A. and his captain than anyone else ever had, and this is how the world repaid him.

                Chris started hearing whispering sounds in the back of his mind, it sounded like Piers. Chris’ mind must have been a cruel bitch to start toying with him like it was now, replaying Piers’ voice in his head when he was staring at the man in front of him, cold, lifeless, and very truly dead. Then with a spark of hope but utter fright, Chris saw the lips of Piers’ face begin to move. His mind really was toying with him, the sound was getting louder now and he was all but hearing the sounds being yelled into his face _*Chris? Chris?*_ slowly the mouth of the dead man opened, the sound of Chris’ name being said in Piers’ voice getting louder and louder.

                Chris woke up with a start, almost slamming into Piers’ face with how quickly he was getting up. Piers still had his hand on Chris’ shoulder, shaking him roughly. Chris looked at Piers and such relief crossed his face that it took him a moment to realize how hard he had grabbed Piers and started hugging him. Piers tried pushing back from Chris, his face turning extremely red. Chris realized that he was practically crushing the air out of Piers and let go, a sheepish grin forming its way onto his face while he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

 _“Sorry Piers. I didn’t mean to practically kill you with a hug.”_ Chris’ face was now turning red with embarrassment as well.

Piers quickly looked Chris in the eyes and then darted his gaze away, it was almost too quick for Chris to notice, but he did see the faint ghost of a smile cross Piers’ lips before he responded, _“It’s alright Captain. Hope here just woke me up and looked over at you. You were freaking out pretty hard and almost screaming my name in your sleep, what was going on?”_

Chris cleared his throat nervously; he was just now realizing that he was having a nightmare, _“N-nothing. Nothing to worry about Piers, let’s just uh, go find the doctor, see if they know anything new?”_

Piers eyed Chris for a moment, he wasn’t going to be easily fooled by the shell Chris was trying to put over the fright he had experience in his nightmare, _“Alright then Captain, let’s go find a doctor shall we?”_

                Chris and Piers slowly walked out of the room, Hope came along gladly and pretty much seemed to work as a Seeing Eye dog for Piers. They walked down a couple halls and turned a couple corners before they found a nurse and asked where the doctor was that was handling Piers’ case. The nurse explained that Dr. Caulfield was on the second floor where they tested blood and tissue samples. The nurse paged for the doctor and she was down standing next to the nurse in no less than five minutes. She eyed both Chris and Piers questioningly, wondering why they were out of the room.

Piers looked at Dr. Caulfield with a smile on his face, and Hope walked up and nuzzled her hand while Chris started asking questions, _“So Doctor, is there anything new that we should know? Is Piers going to be able to get out of here anytime soon?”_

                Piers looked at Chris surprised, they hadn’t even been in the hospital for forty-eight hours and he was already asking if he could leave? Piers himself didn’t think he would be leaving for weeks, months, maybe even a year or two while they waited for the C-Virus to run its course through his body. Hope returned to Piers’ side from nuzzling the doctor’s hand and looked up almost quizzically at Piers who just shrugged at her. The nurse next to the doctor noticed this and gave them both a smile, seeing that they seemed to help each other in a sense to feel somewhat complete.

A big smile crossed the Doctor’s face as she delivered news about Piers’ condition, _“Ok, so Mr. Redfield, Mr. Nivans, there is some good news and bad news, well actually there is **a lot** of good news and then kind of neutral news.”_

Chris was almost trying to rush the doctor at this point while Piers still just stood their patiently, _“What’s the news doc?”_

The doctor chuckled at Chris’ impatience, although Chris scowled the doctor didn’t seem offended and continued, _“The good news is he can go home anytime. We are ninety-nine percent sure that he is not going to have some crazy kind of relapse and go about killing people. His arm on the other hand, we have no idea about it beyond what we have told you. It doesn’t seem to respond to anything unless someone is trying to harm it, for example a knife or a scalpel when we were trying to get a sample, so everything should be good there. I think personally the best news is this; we think that Mr. Nivans here will not be permanently blind. The root-like objects crossing his eyes, because I mean we really do not have any other way to describe them, seem to be acting much like the mutated arm is, acting as some kind of cast while they heal. Did you have any kind of vision impairment before you injected yourself, Mr. Nivans?”_

Piers thought for a moment before responding to the doctor with a nod, _“Yeah, sometimes stuff got a little blurry up close but I just thought that was stress from being in the B.S.A.A. and on constant missions.”_

Dr. Caulfield smiled at him, _“Well, it seems that the virus itself might actually be helping you more than it would ever harm you, it might be trying to fix your vision as well as your arm, but only time will be able to tell I am afraid.”_

Chris himself seemed to be more relieved than what Piers was. Chris let loose a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall, a gigantic smile forming on his face. The other three people just looked at him and he looked back and apologized, saying that he didn’t meant to freak them out, that he was just extremely relieved. They spent a couple more minutes talking, a lot of *thanks* and *you’re welcome* being said back and forth.

After the doctor and nurse had walked away Chris looked to Piers with a look of pure joy in his eyes, _“So, since you are okay to leave, what would you say to coming back to my place, at least for today?”_

Piers smiled at Chris and his heart fluttered a little bit, enjoying the simple pleasure of hearing those words from his Captain, _“Sure, Captain, that would be great.”_

Chris chuckled as he started to walk away, _“Oh don’t call me Captain, after everything you’ve done soldier you can call me Chris.”_

Piers smiled even bigger at that while he was following Chris, _“Sure thing, Chris.”_ Something about being able to call Chris as Chris was just heartwarming to Piers.

About halfway on their way back to the front of the hospital Chris’ phone rang, it had Jill’s number on it so he flipped it open and answered, _“Hey Jill, what’s up?”_

Jill laughed into the phone at hearing the light-hearted attitude in Chris’ voice, _“Oh not much, I just heard from the doctor that you guys had a talk with her. I just wanted to let you know before you walked halfway back to your house, I got in touch with some people and your truck is sitting outside in the parking lot for you to use. I think one of your soldiers, Ares I think his name was, is still there; he has the keys for you.”_

Chris smiled once again, probably for the thousandth time that morning, _“Thanks Jill you’re a big help. I will talk to you later ok? We’re going to go find Ares.”_

Jill chuckled silently to herself, _“Alright then Bearfield, you have fun now, I will catch up with you later, I have a whole shit ton of paperwork to go through after the past two days.”_

                Chris hung up the phone after saying good bye and inwardly he felt a little guilty. He knew Jill meant the paperwork from getting all of this together. He was thankful that she did it but could not even begin to imagine the huge amount of paperwork she must be doing so that this all happened. Chris, Piers, and Hope continued on out of the building after finding Ares and getting the keys, and might have just received the biggest thanks from Chris Ares has seen in his life.

                Chris and Piers hopped into the front of his pickup truck, but Chris had to help Piers into the passenger side as his vision was still pretty bad. Chris opened the door and Hope hopped into the middle of the truck and had just enough room where she could half sit on the seat and half stand so that she was still up far enough in the truck to be right in between Piers and Chris. Chris smiled to himself and started up the truck. Soon they were on their way to Chris’ apartment. They made small talk while they were on their way over, mostly about things that had happened before _China_ and some of the things that Chris had done after he came out of his *Oh my god Piers is dead* depression mode.

                Some point on the way over to Chris’ apartment Piers was flipping through the channels on the radio and a song came on that Piers stopped with and started humming along to it. Chris had never heard the song before and didn’t really listen much to the style of music that was playing, but he saw how happy Piers was listening to it and couldn’t bring himself to say anything about it. Piers in some shape or form noticed that Chris had seen his transition from mindlessly flipping the radio stations and decided to explain himself.

Piers gave a little chuckle after humming a few lines of the song, _“Well, it might not really be my cup of tea so to speak, but the meaning behind it is really clear. My sister used to listen to this song day and night, and she eventually got me hooked on it as well because of what it meant.”_

                Chris started listening in and out to a few of the phrases from the song, _*a love story that never has an end* *Somebody’s Chelseaaaaa….*_ Chris started listening more intently to the song and he could honestly say that something about it was captivating, he didn’t normally listen to this kind of music, that much was for sure, but he was loving this song more and more as he heard Piers continue to talk about it and eventually continued humming along with it. Eventually Piers started to sing along quietly with the song, but Chris was picking up on the parts that he seemed to love the most.

**_*I want to be somebody’s Chelsea, somebody’s world, somebody’s day and night* *a part of a love story that never has an end*_ **

                Chris smiled inwardly to himself, almost feeling a tinge of sadness as the song stopped and Piers started mindlessly flipping through stations again. They took about another twenty minutes after that to get back to Chris’ home. They walked in through the door and started to settle in. Hope ran in and hopped up onto the couch and started to fall fast asleep. Chris and Piers were left to stand at the door until Chris was able to take Piers around the house. After the door closed Piers could feel Chris’ eyes on him. He turned around to try and look at Chris and was met with a hug.

_“Piers, I hope we can have a love story without an end.”_

                Piers was shocked, he didn’t think Chris actually felt that way about him. Piers just relished in the hug and let those words sink in. This is definitely something Piers would not mind in the slightest, he just never thought his Captain felt the same way. Piers answered Chris shyly with a *I would love that* and before he continued Chris silenced him with a kiss.


	5. Fear

Chapter 5: Fear

“We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict.” ~Jim Morrison

 

 

                Chris and Piers began to settle down in Chris’ home for the long run. It hadn’t been used in a couple of months because Chris never really had any time to actually stay **at** his house. There was trash and leftover takeout boxes all over the place. While Piers’ vision was just extremely fuzzy, Chris still had to be very careful leading him around the place. A few times Chris fell down to the floor bringing Piers with him as he tripped over something. Smiles, laughter, and a questioning look from Hope always ensued after a fall.

                It took something around ten to fifteen minutes for the both of them to finally get to Chris’ room. Chris helped Piers to the bed and after Piers was lying down comfortably Chris asked if there was anything Piers wanted to watch on television. Chris would always keep himself determined to make sure Piers remember the doctor’s information. His condition was _temporary_. Piers smiled at the thought of watching some of his favorite shows on television with Chris and just said any kind of cop show would suffice.

                Chris turned on a show for Piers to watch and then he set about cleaning up his rundown and dirty old house. There was a **_lot_** of pizza boxes and empty take out containers all over his house from dozens of restaurants. It reeked horribly to Chris and he privately wondered why Piers never even bothered to say anything to him about it because Chris knew that his senses had become hyperactive since he lost most of his sight. It took Chris something like two hours and a couple dozen trash bags to get everything cleaned out of the living room and hallways, and there was still the closed rooms left to go through. Even after clearing everything out Chris would still have a lot of work to do, the smell was still all over the place and a couple rooms needed to get cleaned out that hadn’t been touched in years. Those rooms probably weren’t going to be as bad considering Chris never really used them so they just probably had a lot of dirt for Chris to clean up. Chris’ room was a mess as well, but thankfully it was mostly just clothes lying all over the place so Chris would save that room for last and hope that it wasn’t too bad for Piers.

                Chris suddenly felt a vibration in his pocket. He scowled, wondering who it could possibly be at an important time like this, and pulled his phone out. He was surprised to see he had missed several messages, and from several different people at that.

                The first one was a message from Sherry and Jake, _*Chris, they said we couldn’t see you guys because we weren’t B.S.A.A., message us back when you get the chance.*_ Chris had to give Sherry a lot of credit, she could be very persistent and caring all at the same time and it was not something you often saw. He quickly sent back a message for them to come over to his house when they got time and he went to check on the other messages. However, before Chris was even able to open the next text message he had received a reply from Sherry. Chris mused to himself that she could reply faster than a Chihuahua on a thousand cups of caffeine.

 _*Is Piers ok, Chris? Is he with you?*_ Chris responded with a _*Yes*_ and before he could do anything else he had received another text back, even quicker than the first one from Sherry.

_*We’ll be there in about an hour maybe? See you guys soon!*_

                Chris sent back a simple *ok* before exiting out of that conversation to go and look at the other messages he had missed. They were mostly a lot of _*good luck*_ or _*get well soon*_ kinds of messages. A couple more showed up from Sherry and Jake form when he had been sleeping in the hospital, even one while they were driving asking if he was awake yet. Chris smiled at that message; Sherry could definitely warm your heart with how worried she could get about people she knew.

                Chris opened up one last message before returning to what he was doing, this one came from someone labeled as “Q.A.” and Chris wondered who that could be. It was a message from Quentin and Ares. _*Hey, if you guys need anything Alpha has your back, good luck!*_ that message ended with a picture of the entirety of Alpha Team giving a thumbs up for Piers, so that he knew he wouldn’t be alone in all of this.

                Once he got into the room he saw Hope’s head rested on Piers’ chest yet again, her head rising and falling in tune with Piers’ breathing. They were both awake although, and the television was still going. Piers had his head laid back down on a pillow and he was somewhat poking at his left eye.

                When Chris walked into the room Piers looked over in his general direction. A smile crossed Piers’ face and Chris raised an eyebrow at him, although he knew Piers could not see it. Chris had to ask him what was going on before Piers knew he was confused.

Piers’ smile grew even bigger when Chris asked him that question, _“I can see a little bit better out of my left eye now. It’s still really fuzzy but I can see more of an outline to things rather than just a blob. Might even be able to walk around on my own soon, Papa Bear.”_

                Chris smiled, it was nice to hear that Piers was getting some vision back and that the suspicions the doctors had seemed to be true, for the moment at least, there was still the question of what might happen in the long run. Suddenly, Chris had an idea; he began rummaging through a drawer next to the bed and found what he was looking for. He turned around and received a questioning look in his direction from Piers. He smiled and put something on Piers’ face, hoping it might improve his vision. Chris was glad to hear a small and subtle gasp from Piers as he tried looking around the room. He couldn’t see very far, only a couple inches or so out from his face and then it all went back to being extremely fuzzy again.

 _“How does it look?”_ Chris asked curiously.

Piers was still looking around, seeing if he could focus his vision some more. _“Better, I can see a couple inches in front of me but after that it gets fuzzy again and if I try to focus at all I start getting a headache.”_

                Chris chuckled silently to himself, those very same glasses used to give him a massive headache as well, _“Well, fight that head of yours a little bit longer, I have something to show you.”_ Chris handed Piers his phone.

                Piers stared at the picture and message with a masked look of surprise on his face. Chris was watching him for any signs of a reaction. Chris received almost no reaction from Piers at first. After what seemed like hours to Chris he saw a tear stinging the edges of Piers’ left eye. Chris saw him quickly wipe it away and barely heard him mutter _*they care…*_ Chris was honestly surprised, he put a hand on Piers’ left shoulder and squeezed, waiting for a response from the younger man. When he finally did give a response Piers looked up into his face. Chris sat down next to Piers on the bed and Hope was startled at the sudden movement, hopping out of the bed.

                Chris saw doubt and happiness in Piers’ face, _“Why wouldn’t they care about you Piers?”_

Piers was so serious that it scared Chris once he got his answer back from the former sniper, _“Look at me. Why should they care about something like me, I’m just a deformed freak now.”_

                Piers’ voice broke and he started to cry quietly and slowly. Chris realized it would take a lot more to get Piers back to normal than what he had originally thought, it wasn’t just the physical deformities, Piers was a little broken himself inside. Suddenly, Chris began to realize some of the things he had been doing, and couldn’t blame Piers for feeling so horrible.

                Chris never touched Piers’ mutated arm, never did anything to the right side of him at all. Every time he helped Piers he would always reach for the left side, even now he was doing it. Chris made a mental note right then and there to make sure Piers wouldn’t feel like a freak in his own home. Chris started it right then, he walked over to the other side of the bed and sat down. Chris put his hand on Piers’ mutated arm, and almost laughed at the surprised look he received from the former sniper. He didn’t though, because he knew better than to make him feel any worse, instead he slowly caressed Piers’ arm. Chris watched him follow his hand with his blank eyes and a small tingling of electricity followed Chris wherever he moved on the arm.

                Chris slowly pulled the glasses off of Piers’ face and sat them down on the dresser next to the bed. Chris cupped Piers’ face in his hand and made the younger man look in the direction of his face.

 _“ **This** ,” _Chris said determined now more than ever before, _“ **is** something worth worrying about, and something worth caring for, no matter how much you think it isn’t, Piers.”_

                Chris pulled in the right side of Piers’ face, brushing it as gently as he could with the back of his hand and felt the man shudder from the touch. He slowly pulled Piers in and kissed him, determined to show his former subordinate that there is **_always_** something worth living for. Chris didn’t pull away; he would let it go on for as long as Piers wanted it to. A little too quickly though, Piers pulled back, turning red and not wanting to look at his Captain’s face.

                Chris put his hand on Piers’ arm once again but the man just pulled away. Chris sighed and since he was obviously being defeated in this little fight he walked out of the room. Chris started to clean the place up a little bit more and after a while he heard a ring at the door. Chris went to answer it and found Sherry standing at the door with Jake waiting behind her.

Sherry had a big smile on her face when she saw Chris, _“Hey Chris! How is it going with you guys?”_

Jake just scoffed behind Sherry as Chris replied, _“It’s uh… going good, I guess. Piers is kind of… brooding I guess you would say.”_

Sherry had a little bit of worry in her eyes after Chris told her that. _“Is there anything we could do to help you guys out?”_

Chris rubbed at the back of his head for a moment thinking, _“Um, I’m not sure what we would do really, I mean he can’t really go anywhere on his own.”_

Jake threw up his hands behind Sherry, he could be really impatient when he wanted to be, _“Well damn Redfield why not just take your little puppy for a walk and see if that cheers him up huh?”_

Sherry rolled her eyes and turned around to say something to Jake when Chris responded to him, _“That might actually be a good idea, thanks, Jake.”_

                Jake looked away from Chris thinking it absurd that he actually was complimented for some bullshit idea he came up with to try and piss the man off. Chris invited them into the house and they took a seat in the living room. Hope came into the front of the house and started sniffing at the newcomers. Sherry was quite happy to see they had a dog but Jake just looked at it bored, having no interest in the animal at all. Chris went back into their room so that he could get Piers.

Once he walked in he saw Piers absently staring in the direction of the television, _“Hey, I got some people who want to see you.”_

Piers looked in Chris’ direction, not really wanting to acknowledge his Captain, _“Tell them to come back another time. I’m not really in the mood right now.”_

Chris took another step toward the bed, he was a bit irritated at that but didn’t let it show in his voice, _“Piers, you get up and let me take you out there or I will **carry** you out there.”_

                Piers didn’t make a move or say anything, obviously thinking Chris was just bluffing. He was not; Chris moved over and picked up Piers, slinging him over his shoulder like he was carrying a child. Piers just sighed and looked at the ground in defeat. He carried him out to the living room and saw Sherry cover her mouth while she silently giggled at the two men and Jake just had a smirk crossing his face. Chris set Piers down and he just sat there looking more annoyed than ever, but apparently did not realize who it was that wanted to see him because he perked up the second Sherry started speaking to him.

Sherry’s voice was as gentle as she could make it, _“Hey Piers, how is it going with you?”_

Piers stared in her direction genuinely surprised, he figured someone from the B.S.A.A. was here, _“I’m ok I guess. Can’t really do much around here with my eyesight gone for now.”_

Sherry looked at Piers with sympathy, she couldn’t imagine how terrible it must be for a sniper to lose their vision, _“Well, how about we go out and take a walk to clear the air a little bit huh?”_

                Piers nodded reluctantly. He didn’t really want to go out but he was not about to say no in front of these three people, especially considering one of them was Sherry and she was more persistent than a cockroach surviving a nuclear warhead. Chris went into a closest to find something for Piers to wear outside since it was a little chilly. He found one of his older hoodies and brought it out to Piers. It was a camouflage color and fit over him pretty well, it went over the arm which seemed to be getting smaller but there wasn’t any hiding the clawed shape at the end of his arm.

                They headed on out the door for a short walk, Chris and Sherry taking the lead while Piers walked with Jake to guide him. Chris had protested once Sherry had pulled him aside to tell him that Jake should walk with Piers, but she wasn’t having any of it. Sherry wanted the two to get on better terms so they did not have any kind of problems down the road. Chris and Sherry continued on just talking about any random thing they could, Jake hung back with Piers willingly but noticed how the man kept his head down with the hood over his head. He knew Piers had hypersensitive hearing as well as many other things, and Jake had noticed the looks he was getting from other people walking the streets. It was only a matter of time before something happened.

                They all kept on walking for a few more blocks. Jake started hearing random mutterings from people they passed such as _*Are they really walking with that **thing**?*, *Somebody should get that **thing** out of here before it goes nuts.*, *Freaks like that should be put down.*_ Jake heard many other things that he knew Piers could hear, but Chris and Sherry still seemed to be oblivious of everything.

                It took a couple minutes for Jake to notice that somebody was following them. He didn’t seem very interested in Chris, Sherry, or himself, but more so he was focused on Piers. He was wearing a dark hoodie with his head down and he had one hand in his pocket holding something. Jake quickly made it look like he wasn’t paying attention to anything particular thing and he could hear the man still coming up behind them, muttering something. Piers still just kept his head down and kept walking forward. Suddenly, the man behind Piers put his hand over Piers’ mouth and had a knife to his back.

                Jake reacted before anything could happen and grabbed the man’s wrist, twisting it so that the blade fell to the ground. Jake quickly pulled out his pistol and stuck it to the man’s forehead, almost growling as he did it. Chris and Sherry stopped walking immediately and looked behind them to see what was going on. Piers was standing off to the side looking down at the ground dejectedly, and Jake had somebody by the arm with a gun to the head.

 _“I suggest you turn back around now before I put a fucking bullet between your eyes you asshole. This kid isn’t going to do **shit** to you so get out of here before I change my mind and blow your damn brains out.” _ Jake was practically seething with a rage nobody had ever seen him have before.

                The man hurried away running like someone stuck a pipe bomb to his ass. Jake put his hand on Piers’ shoulder to try and reassure him but it didn’t help at all. All three people besides Piers agreed that it was probably time to go back to Chris’ house so they turned around and started moving as quickly as they could.


	6. Reinforced

Chapter 6: Reinforced

“Sight is the gateway into the body’s mind.” ~Unknown

 

                After the incident everyone turned around to start walking back to Chris’ house before anything else happened. Piers didn’t want to walk with anyone, didn’t even want to lift his head. Everyone was keeping a more watchful eye now. Nobody had yet tried to make a move but they could still hear the idiotic bigotry and hateful comments coming from the people walking near their small group.

                Chris and Sherry stayed as close to Piers and Jake as they could. They tried to keep up small talk but they were failing miserably at it. Chris would look back often to make sure nothing had happened yet. Jake silently laughed at Sherry. Sherry was even more concerned than Chris was if that was even possible, she might as well be walking backwards from how often she turned her head to look at them.

                Every once in a while Jake would look at Piers as well to make sure he was OK. Each time Jake just felt worse, Piers’ head just kept being held further and further down like he was trying to disappear, and this was all happening because of what he did to save lives. Nobody really knew other than Piers himself how far his hearing went, and judging by the distance they were from the closest people, Jake could see that his hearing extended out pretty damn far.

                Jake was keeping a careful eye on Piers because he could see more suspicious people walking around. Sure, he wasn’t generally fond of the guy, whom he would normally call Chris’ *Puppy*, but even Jake has to give recognition to the kind of person that would almost give their own life to rescue a mercenary like Jake was. Mutated or not, Jake might always have a protective instinct for Piers, after all, the man saved his life and this was how he was being treated by people who didn’t even know him.

                Jake had no clue how much this could really be hitting Piers because Jake himself was immune to the C-Virus, and in all reality, even the people who hired mercenaries didn’t like them much anyway. Jake did eventually get some kind of idea how bad this was for Piers though; he saw something almost unnoticeable fall from Piers’ face. It was a tear, Piers was silently crying to himself as they walked on. Jake was shocked, here was a man who fought B.O.W.s and had no second thought about giving his own life. Jake had thought nothing could break a man like that, but here he was, reduced to a quiet and internal fight about what other people thought about him. In Jake’s opinion, the kind of person who looked at someone as if they were a monster without knowing them was a monster their-self.

                Jake slid Piers’ hood off his head. He was met with a scared and questioning look, along with reddened eyes that he was obviously trying to hide below his hood. Jake didn’t back down or say anything, he just kept walking along, but when Piers went to put his hood back up Jake pulled his arm back down, not allowing him to put it up over his head again. Jake was going to make Piers walk with the hood down and damn what other people thought about him. Sherry looked back and saw what was happening but said nothing to them as a smile slowly crossed her face at how caring Jake was trying to be.

                They were nearing Chris’ house now and there was still a _lot_ of people milling around outside, many of them still giving them questioning looks but nobody tried to do anything stupid. Many people were still eying Piers as if he was going to start killing everyone and everything nearby, and Piers upon seeing this, just let his head hang down again dejectedly. Jake himself would continue to glare venomously until they all turned away. Jake mused that it would probably be hard for him to be this terrible to someone no matter how much he got paid. Paranoia and prejudices were a powerful thing, especially in the hands of those who had no clue what they were even being angry about.

                One more person actually approached their group and Jake was suspicious until he realized the man was wearing B.S.A.A. gear and seemed to be lost in thought, not actually paying them any mind as he walked up he just seemed to be staring into nowhere. It didn’t seem like Chris and Sherry actually noticed him very much until he stopped in front of them surprised, looking at the group with his eyes finally resting on Piers seeming to be searching for something. The man didn’t seem to be the least bit scared, surprised, or disturbed, but rather he just seemed extremely curious about the strange person this group was walking with.

                Chris looked at him for a moment blinking in confusion, he saw he was wearing B.S.A.A. gear but this was nobody that he actually recognized from anywhere. Sherry didn’t say anything but was surprised that Chris seemed to not know who this was, of course Sherry didn’t because she wasn’t even a part of the B.S.A.A. Jake, no longer being so protective, was now just watching the soldier to see what he would try and do. Piers apparently had not noticed that everyone had actually stopped moving and noticed that finally when he ran into Chris with a soft grunt; Chris turned around to raise an eyebrow at him but once he saw that Piers’ head was hanging down dejectedly he just went back to looking at the soldier in front of them.

                The man apparently was so lost in thought searching Piers from head to toe that he barely noticed he was being watched; he cleared his throat and rubbed at the back of his head. The soldier was turning a little red and nobody was saying anything to him because they were waiting for him to make the first move. Everyone just continued watching him as he began talking.

                The soldier was nervous but he quickly warmed up once he started asking for introductions, _“Hi, um, Captain Redfield, right?”_ the soldier was turning a little bit red as Chris continued to stare him down.

 _“Yes, I’m Redfield, do you need something soldier?”_ Chris was skeptical, he was not expecting to run into a B.S.A.A. soldier near his house but the man looked like he had just returned for the day.

                The soldier’s eyes finally shifted over from Piers to Chris, and they were starting to show how nervous he was. The man had been staring at Piers with some strange kind of fascination that nobody could quite pinpoint a reason for. The soldier also began to start stuttering a small bit.

_“U-um n-n-not really, no, Captain Redfield, uh would I be able to speak to you privately real quick, Sir?”_

                Chris looked back and saw that Piers still had his head hanging down. Chris, despite Sherry’s slight protesting, had told them all to go on inside and wait along with Piers so he could hopefully cheer up a bit. Chris turned back to the soldier after they left and the two stood in a silent awkwardness. Chris saw how the soldier’s eyes were still following Piers’ mutated arm with a huge expression of curiosity and Chris still could not place why. Chris cleared his throat and the soldier looked back at him, rubbing his head nervously.

 _“There was something you wanted to talk to me about Soldier?”_ Chris asked him this warily, and was quite surprised by the response he got.

 _“Yeah, um, your friend with the arm, I heard about him injecting himself with the C-Virus and that happened correct?”_ Chris nodded, realizing the soldier wanted confirmation before he continued speaking.

 _“Well, I have… experience with mutations, to put it bluntly. I was wondering, would you mind if I come over later to look at your friend? I think I might be able to help him out a bit, if you don’t mind.”  
_                 Chris was surprised, he didn’t even know this soldier and he was offering to try his best at whatever it was he does in order to help Piers. Chris was cautious about him but accepted the soldier’s help anyway. Piers would need a _lot_ of help after what happened earlier that day. Chris thanked the soldier and watched him walk away. Surprisingly, the soldier seemed to be living at the other end of the street and Chris was curious, he had no idea about any other B.S.A.A. personnel living on this side of the city. Chris figured the soldier must just have been a new person around here, or maybe it was just because Chris hadn’t been anywhere near his house in a while.

                Suddenly, Chris remembered nobody even bothered to ask his name. Before going back inside Chris slowly walked down to the soldier’s house and before he even got to the door Chris had received a text from Sherry, who was yet again, worrying about someone.

_*Hey, Piers isn’t really in a talking mood but I guess that is understandable. Where did you go to Chris?*_

                Chris smiled, he responded quickly that they had a conversation concerning Piers and Chris watched him walk back to his house before realizing there were a few questions he could ask him. Sherry seemed satisfied with the answer Chris had sent back to her and she just responded with a simple *OK* and did not bother asking Chris anything else about the man.

                Chris got to the soldier’s front door and heard some loud buzzing noises from inside. He peeked through a window and could see that the soldier was working on something, although he could not tell what exactly it was. Chris decided to ring the doorbell. When Chris did ring the bell he was taken aback by how loud it was, he figured people inside their own houses might hear it. The odd thing about it though, it did not seem to be ringing directly from the front door itself. The sound actually seemed like it came from the room he saw the soldier working in.

                The sounds stopped almost immediately after Chris rang the bell. Chris heard the man approaching and could hear him grumbling something about annoying salespeople. He opened up the door and he had on something akin to what looked like metal working equipment. He had on goggles, gloves, and noise cancelling headphones. He had some tools in his hand and the goggles were extremely dark causing him to need to remove them. After removing the goggles the soldier blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the sudden light. After a few seconds of blinking the soldier recognized who was standing at the door and his tools fell to the ground. He hastily picked them up stammering as he spoke to Chris.

_“Uh C-Captain Redfield, uh w-what exactly do you need, Sir?”_

                Chris looked at him curiously; Chris Redfield was obviously the **_last_** person that this soldier had expected to see on his front doorstep. Chris watched as the man began to hastily look to his side and back towards the room he had just come from, probably wondering if Chris could see what was inside of it.

Chris finally cleared his throat and starting speaking to the nervous soldier, _“I uh, didn’t catch your name, and was just curious about what you are doing.”_

The soldier calmed down, realizing that Chris wasn’t here for anything else and thought it was safe enough to answer him, _“Well, as for my name that would be V. As for what I’m working on… let’s just say it is a sort of project that someone asked me to get done.”_

Chris felt satisfied with that right now, after all he had no right to pry and see what was going on here. Chris turned to walk back to his house when V asked him a question, _“So, when would be a good time to come by? I’ll be bringing some stuff with me but I would just need to know what time might be comfortable for you guys.”_

Chris thought for a moment, scratching absently at his chin, _“Would about thirty minutes be OK for you V? I think Sherry and Jake will probably be leaving soon and then we should be good for whatever you need to do, Sherry can get pretty worrisome over people.”_

                V smiled and gave Chris a thumbs up, indicating that would be a good time for him. Chris waved goodbye and started walking back to the house. Once he got in he saw Jake and Sherry standing in the living room, Sherry looking more agitated than ever. Chris assumed that Piers was in the bedroom with Hope down the hallway because he could see that one of the doors was open. Chris walked over to Sherry and Jake waving them a greeting before the conversation started up.

Jake looked exasperated, _“Redfield, don’t ever take any of my ideas concerning your little puppy seriously again OK? He may have saved my life but I’m not going to follow that little dog of yours around everyone to stop people from acting like jackasses.”_

Chris smirked at him, _“Oh really Jake, and you have never been a jackass to someone yourself?”_

Jake scoffed at the implication, _“Only if I get paid enough to do it Redfield.”_

Sherry stepped between them exasperated, playfully slapping them both across the face so they would look at her instead of continuing on with their bickering, _“Will you both just stop arguing for once sheesh! Anyway Chris, Piers didn’t seem too intent on wanting to talk to us so we just left him alone in the bedroom with your guys’ dog. Me and Jake are going to head on out and relax for the night, you better be able to cheer him up or I’m going to hound you the rest of your life.”_

Chris rolled his eyes at Sherry but was taking her words seriously, _“Yes mom I will apologize to him.”_

Sherry chuckled at him, _“Seriously Chris, try and cheer him up OK?”_

Chris smiled at Sherry’s persistence, at least this time, this form of persistence is something Chris was glad for, _“Yes Sherry you know I will. You guys have fun now, don’t stay out too late.”_

                Sherry and Jake both assured that they would be careful, obviously everyone was starting to wonder if people would try anything against them just because they had been seen walking with Piers. Chris slowly walked into the bedroom where Piers was laying down. Chris stood in the doorway for a moment watching him. He was lying in the bed, television on, but the hood was pulled over his face. Chris moved over to the bed and looked down at Piers. Hope was lying next to him, curled up and snoring softly in her sleep.

                Chris decided it was time to talk to Piers. He slowly grabbed the hood and pulled it back down over his head. Piers tried to pull it back up but Chris wasn’t having any of it, he just held the hood down as Piers tried to move it away from Chris. Chris just stared at Piers, he could tell he had been crying and was sorry that he ever wanted to try the dumb idea Jake had come up with of going out for a walk. Chris was hoping what he would say would get through to Piers somehow.

Chris started off as gently as he could, _“Hey Piers, c’mon don’t let those idiots get to you you’re **fine** there isn’t anything wrong with you.”_

Piers looked at him trying to put a scowl on his face, _“Chris can you honestly say that to me? I mean for god’s sake someone tried to fucking **stab** me in the **back** today. I was going to fucking let him do it too I didn’t even try to do anything!”_

                Chris’ face flushed and for a moment he hadn’t realized what he was doing. When he finally came back to it his hand had punched a hole in the wall and Piers was staring at him and very frightened. Chris looked from his hand to Piers and the hole in the wall. He silently cursed himself for somehow having a blackout from hearing what Piers had just told him, he was just inwardly glad that he hadn’t aimed the hand at Piers.

Chris took a deep breath to try and calm himself before he started talking to Piers, _“Don’t you **ever** act like that Piers! There are people that are **trying** to get you to realize you aren’t alone! Do you even remember what the doctor said to you? That stuff is **temporary** so stop giving a shit what other people think and live your life! Nobody should be able to bring you down this far so why in the hell are you letting them do this to you?!”_

                Chris was practically blowing steam out of his ears when he was yelling at Piers. He received no answer from Piers when he was done, just the continuance of a shocked and scared expression on his face. Chris was about to say something else when he heard the doorbell ring. He went to the door to go see who it was. Chris looked through the eye hole and saw that it was the soldier from earlier; V. Chris opened up the door and let him in. Hope, startled by the noise of the doorbell, was also at the front door and as soon as V had walked in Hope had jumped up on him and started licking his face, almost making him drop the stuff he was carrying.

                Chris pulled Hope off of V and got her to calm down so that she would not jump on him again. Chris eyed the stuff V had brought with him and once the soldier saw that he raised an eyebrow at Chris, waiting for him to ask about it. Chris finally gave in to his curiosity and asked some questions.

Still eying the stuff curiously V asked him, _“So, what are those for exactly?”_

V smirked, _“Well, I am going to see if I can get your friend to shoot off some of his electricity to try and loosen that thing up for him. These are just so he has something for it to go into, rather than accidentally setting something on fire. By the way, I have done this once or twice before. If it does work like I think it will, don’t be offended if I take one of these back with me alright?”_

Chris nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer he received, _“Well, he is in the back room if you want to just follow me over there. Oh and yeah, don’t worry about that it’s not like we will probably have any use for… whatever it is those will do.”_

V nodded and followed Chris to the back bedroom where Piers was, Chris slowly stepped in first, talking to Piers, _“Hey, got someone who wants to see you. He might be able to help with your arm a little bit.”_

Piers nodded begrudgingly, he wasn’t about to argue with what they wanted to do after Chris had punched a hole in the wall earlier, and then V looked at Chris and asked him about it, _“Uh, Captain, were you the one that punched the wall?”_

Chris nodded in embarrassment and then V continued, _“Um, don’t take this the wrong way but could you uh… wait outside while I do this? I don’t want you freaking out if this works.”_

                Chris nodded in defeat, realizing that this guy seemed to know more about what would happen than what Chris did, so Chris just watched from the hallway. He watched as V slid the arm of the hoodie that was still on Piers off of his arm and started to stretch it out. Chris also decided to listen in intently on what was being said.

 _“Alright, Mr. Nivans, I’m going to need you to just let me do this. I’m going to push a few points on your arm here and hopefully you can get a little more use out of it after we are done tonight OK?”_ V was using a kind and gentle tone, and Chris couldn’t help but smile at what he was saying because Piers actually seemed to be **_really_** interested in what he was saying the second it was concerning his arm.

                V slung one of his cases over his neck and kept it in front of his chest, the other two were sitting on the floor. He slowly straightened Piers’ arm out and began pressing a few points on his arms, it almost seemed like he was pushing what would be pressure points. After a few pushes V grunted from a burst of bio-electricity that arced from Piers’ clawed arm into the case on his chest. Chris almost rushed in because it looked like it might have had some effect on V, but stopped when the soldier held up his hand towards Chris in a stopping motion. It seems Chris would just have to sit back and watch the show.

                Chris watched as V took a moment to lower Piers’ arm and check his case, at what it was that surprised him Chris doesn’t know, he only saw V raise his eyebrows and quickly sling the case off and grab another one. The same thing was repeated, but V pressed slower and in different spots on Piers’ arm. This time, another burst came out but not as wild and erratic as the first one was. V seemed satisfied because this time when he looked at the side of the case he smirked and slung it back off and put the last one on at a regular pace.

                The same motions were done again as the second time, although the same spots V did it a little quicker this time, and this burst was halfway between being as wild and erratic as the first, but as contained as the second one. V seemed even more satisfied this time as he set down the third case and picked up the first one he had used, slinging over his back so he could carry it out with him. Then he started up a short conversation with Piers.

V seemed genuinely curious as to the results of his actions, _“So Piers, try moving your arm. Are you able to feel anything below this little outer shell you have?”_

Piers did as he was told and his eyes lighted up, _“Y-yeah actually… it feels like I have an arm surrounded by a freaking jar of hardened molasses or something.”_

V chuckled at him, _“Awesome, it’s better than nothing but that means you are actually on track to that thing cracking away one day.”_

                Piers looked at him curiously, a question forming on his lips but he apparently could not find a way to voice it. V just chuckled at him and clapped his hand onto Piers’ mutated shoulder reassuringly. Apparently V felt no need to explain what he meant to Piers and so Chris, who had been standing in the doorway, saw no need to ask him what he meant either. V gave Piers a smile before standing up, and even if his vision had been better he wouldn’t have noticed because he was too busy moving his arm around slowly.

                V walked to the door, motioning for Chris to follow him. They both walked out of the door and stood on the front steps for a moment. V turned around to look at Chris and had a smile on his face. Chris was still curious about what was going on because he had no idea what that just did to actually help Piers but apparently now V might think it is a good time to explain some of the stuff to him.

V still smiling, had a happy tone to his voice when he started speaking to Chris, _“Alright so yeah I know you are probably wondering what that was right there. The three cases I had were basically power storage units, you can use them like batteries, or in the case of the one I am using, you can use it as a… **modification** for something. As for his arm, it was a good sign that he was able to feel something in his arm after all of that. The fact that he could move it means he is on a good track of recovery for that partial cocoon to begin fading away.”_

Chris smiled and shook V’s hand thanking him, before he could say anything V raised his eyebrows, _“Oh shit! Hey I almost forgot something; I was given a note to give to you. Go ahead and read it, I will be on my way back to my place now, I will see you tomorrow.”_

                V handed the note to Chris and walked away towards his house. That was such a sudden change in the conversation that Chris got a little suspicious as to why V had used the word _modification_ and almost hurried back to his home. Chris decided to open up the note to read it, first looking to the names that were signed at the bottom of the paper. It was the signatures of all of Alpha Team. Now that was strange, how did they know this guy would be bumping into Chris today?

Chris took out the note and started reading it:

_~Dear Captain Redfield_

_Hey Captain, greetings from Alpha Team! We know you and Piers aren’t really doing that well, and we figured he might need some cheering up. If you are reading this then you have met V. We need you to bring Piers down to the base tomorrow for some practice and something that should be a sure-fire way to cheer him up! Don’t ask V what it is because honestly we don’t even completely know what he is doing but we **do** know that he is damn good at it. See you guys tomorrow!_

_~Signed: Quentin, Ares, Jack, Ed, Andy_


	7. Modified Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 7: Modified Gift

“Solitude, isolation, are painful things and beyond human endurance.” ~ Jules Verne

 

                Chris finished reading the note he was given by V and was now more curious than ever about what the soldier was up to. Chris never mentioned where he lived to anyone on Alpha Team, or at least, not that he could remember, so how did they know that this guy would find him? Chris also began to brainstorm ideas of what this _modification_ V had mentioned could possibly be. Glasses maybe, something for Piers’ arm perhaps, but then, what could that power unit V took with him be used for?

                Even though the note had specifically said to not even try, Chris _really_ wanted to know what this modification of V’s was. He began walking back towards V’s house and although it isn’t something he should do, he felt like spying on him. He walked up to the front door and heard the buzzing noises start up all over again. Chris looked in through the window and could see V wearing his gear from earlier. Sparks were flying all over the place and Chris could barely make out what he was working on but it was obvious that it was some kind of attachment for a weapon or something like that.

                Chris decided to ring the doorbell but when he looked back at the door it was slightly open. He really should have knocked but Chris wanted to try and get a look before V knew he was there. That did not work very well; the second Chris so much as touched the door a little bit all the noise he was hearing suddenly stopped. Chris waited a moment, the noise continued, so Chris tried pushing the door open a little slower.

                The noise stopped once again, and Chris silently cursed himself for being so stupid. This time, Chris heard the clicking of a gun and the heavy and slow footsteps of the soldier approaching the front door where Chris was standing.

                Chris stopped moving and even breathing in the doorway so he hopefully would not get shot on sight. Chris waited with baited breath as the moments seemed to stretch into years before his eyes. Chris had only been expecting the soldier to come out of the room, but instead he threw a flash bang near the door and Chris was momentarily blinded. Chris felt a heavy weight crash into him knocking to the ground, Chris was heavily distorted and he heard some words but couldn’t make out what they were. Chris waited for something else to happen but nothing ever did.

                It took a few moments for his senses to come back and when they did V was just standing over him and he looked _really_ pissed off at Chris. Chris was nervous and did not move to do anything, just waited for the other soldier to say something. When he finally did Chris did not fail to notice the annoyance in his tone of voice.

_“Captain… you do remember that I have a **doorbell** , right?”_

                Chris bit his lip before he said something really stupid. Chris figured the truth would be better than nothing in a situation like this. After all, the worst thing that V could do was simply say *no* to him.

 _“I uh, read the note you gave me and I got a little curious so… I wanted to try and see what it was that you were making since the note said to not even try to ask you. I just kind of figured the second I asked about it you would just tell me to leave.”_ Chris was rubbing the back of his head from where he had hit the ground and got a nervous smile onto his face.

                V laughed at Chris and helped him up to his feet before deciding to answer him, although he still had a little bit of annoyance in his voice. While he was watching him Chris noticed how he kept glancing back to the room he had come from. It was pretty obvious that whatever Alpha was getting him to do was something he didn’t think was ready to be shown to the Captain.

_“Yeah well, I mean the note isn’t **exactly** what I had said to them. They asked me to try and make something for Piers that would hopefully cheer him up and that is how I found out a little bit about him. I obviously needed to ask some questions to kind of get an idea of what I would be doing, although they had no specific thing in mind. Seeing what his arm looked like for myself helped a **lot** more than what I thought it would have, and I think he will be genuinely happy when he sees what I’ve been up to. By the way Captain, you haven’t uh, mentioned anything about this to him, right?”_

Chris didn’t really need to think for that question, _“No, I just read the note and decided to come over here one more time tonight.”_

V smirked at Chris, _“That’s good. Well if you want to know what it is as long as you do not go and tell him what it is, I guess I could let you take a look at what I have so far.”_

Chris nodded his head in agreement towards V. It might be a secret he is keeping from Piers but hopefully it will turn out to be a good thing in the end. V took him into his workshop area which just happened to be right next to the door and showed him what he had been working on. What he had was not complete by any definition of the word, it was so far just an assortment of attachments but Chris still could not figure out what they were going to be for. Chris and V talked about the *attachments* for a few minutes and after V was confident Chris would not tell Piers anything he bid Chris good night so he could get back to work on his project.

                Chris said good night and he walked back out of the house and headed for his home for the last time that night. He walked in through the front door of his house and was surprised that he wasn’t greeted by Hope jumping up on him. Chris walked to the back bedroom since he saw the door was still open and found her curled up on the bed next to Piers and was fast asleep and snoring softly.

                Piers seemed to still be awake and looking in the direction of the television but his main focus was still on his arm. Chris walked over and gently put his hand on Piers’ shoulder. He looked up at Chris at the sudden contact and smiled for the first time that day, and Chris cracked a smile of his own back in response.

Chris, still smiling said, _“Hey, it is getting kind of late and you haven’t had anything to eat yet. Are you hungry for anything specific Piers?”_

                Chris watched as Piers pursed his lips in thought for a moment. Thinking of it, Piers _must_ have been hungry. Granted, Chris may not have seen everything in the hospital but he was pretty sure Piers had not eaten anything since China. Chris continued to watch as Piers scratched the side of his head still wondering if he was hungry or not. Finally Piers responded and Chris hoped his cooking skills weren’t horrible tonight.

_“Uh yeah, uh can you make some kind of pasta? I think that would be good for now.”_

Chris smiled, _“Sure thing Piers I will get it done as soon as I can.”_

                Piers smiled back at him and turned his attention back to his arm. Chris walked out of the room to go get dinner ready. Chris had everything done after about forty-five minutes, because he hadn’t been paying attention and burned some of the meat a little too much and almost started a fire. Once he got it all done he took some into the back room where Piers was. Piers was still focused on his arm although not as much. Chris decided to try and lighten to mood and ask him how he was doing.

_“So, how is that arm of yours doing Piers?”_

Piers rolled his eyes a little bit and smiled, _“Same as always I guess, the little bit of movement I had is gone now but it was nice while it lasted.”_

Chris smiled, _“Well at least you got some movement in it though huh? Here’s dinner, and I got something to tell you about tomorrow.”_

                Chris set the bowl of pasta in Piers’ hands and smiled, although he knew Piers probably could not see it. Chris put the fork in Piers’ left hand and let him start eating. Chris sat down on the bed next to him and just watched. Piers may not have realized that Chris was next to him but that was all the more better, it was nice for Chris to be able to just sit there next to Piers and not have to worry about upsetting him in some way. Then out of the blue almost as if he had remembered it out of thin air Piers asked him a question.

Finishing the food that was in his mouth before questioning Chris Piers said, _“So, what exactly are we doing tomorrow then Chris… you know how today went.”_

                Chris sighed; he hoped Piers had somehow pushed that to the back of his mind after what happened today. Obviously, Piers had not forgotten but he had not yet gone into a depressive mode like he had earlier in the day so there was still hope that it would not happen. Chris kept a watchful eye on him as he started to respond to Piers.

Piers still had one eyebrow raised at Chris waiting for an answer, _“Well, tomorrow Alpha wants to take you down to the base to do some training, that sound ok with you?”_

Piers pursed his lips in thought for a moment, _“Um, those two guys I saw in the forest… are they going to be there, and that guy from earlier, what about him?”_

                Chris smiled even bigger when he answered Piers with a *yes* for both questions. Piers’ eyes lit up a _lot_ ; it was understandable since V had given Piers his first chance of movement with his _human_ arm in quite some time. Chris and Piers just sat there in silence as Piers continued to eat and the television kept playing. After a while Piers was done and Chris took the dishes into the kitchen so they could get washed later on.

                Chris walked back to the bedroom and saw Piers lying there, actually watching into the doorway. Chris smiled and moved back onto the bed next to his former sniper. Chris didn’t say anything for a few moments, just stared into Piers’ face, trying to imprint the image of his infected face into his brain for the rest of his life.

Chris reached around for Piers’ mutated shoulder and pulled him in closer, _“Hey, you know you mean a lot to me and everyone else right?”_

Piers nodded, _“Yeah, Captain, it’s just… this is really hard and I just don’t feel like anyone really cares if I get through this or not.”_

Chris frowned at the way Piers was thinking, _“Piers, **I care** if you get through this or not. So do a lot of other people. I mean if they didn’t care do you really think they would be going through all of this for you Piers?”_

Piers yawned and smiled lazily at Chris, _“Yeah, I know, you’re right Chris. Sorry, it can just really bring me down sometimes you know? Anyway, I’m getting tired, see you in the morning?”_

Chris pulled Piers in closer and kissed him on the head, _“Yeah, see you in the morning Ace, sweet dreams.”_

Piers slowly closed his eyes as Chris laid him back down, _“Sweet dreams, Captain.”_

                Chris smiled to himself as he saw Piers doze off into a welcome slumber. Chris mused to himself how it would feel good to finally sleep in a bed next to Piers. Chris didn’t do that though, he figured it would be refreshing for Piers to sleep in a bed on his own for once since China, and not a hospital bed either those didn’t count. Before leaving the room Chris gave Piers another kiss on his head and laughed silently as he murmured something in his sleep.

                Walking on out of the room Chris headed to the kitchen to wash the dishes from dinner. Once he cleaned them off he set about making himself a bed on the couch. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable of sleeping places but it would suffice. Chris grabbed a pillow and blanket and lied down to go to sleep. However before he was even able to fall asleep Chris heard his phone buzz and picked it up, he had a message from an unknown number.

_*Hey, this is V. Sorry got the number from Ares; I think Piers will be really glad to see this stuff tomorrow. Almost done with it and that power unit worked perfectly for it! See you guys in the morning Captain.*_

                Chris smiled to himself and sent back a simple *thank you* and put his phone back down. It didn’t ring again that night, or not that Chris could hear it. Chris drifted off into sleep mere moments after he set down the phone anyway, not realizing how tired he has been with the no sleep and terrible sleep he had since finding Piers. Drifting off into slumber this might be one of the most restful sleeps Chris has ever had.

                Chris was running down a hallway as fast as he could but had no idea why. He saw a door up ahead that said *Removals* and he isn’t sure why that made him scared. Chris poured on the speed and almost broke the door running through it. Chris turned a few corners and came up to another door to a patient’s room, for some reason he felt relieved and started smiling and laughing to himself. He pushed open the door to find Piers and V inside.

V and Piers paid him no attention, it was almost as if he was an invisible bystander, _“Alright Piers, get ready I’m going to press a few points and we’ll see if it works.”_

Piers seemed a little nervous when he answered but Chris was momentarily focused on his eyes, they almost seemed _normal_ , _“Ok, just be careful with it I guess.”_

                Chris watched as V began his pressing movements along the mutated arm. Chris took one last look at Piers’ face. Where the first scars of the infection had been was a darker shade of his skin, like he was wearing a partial mask. His eyes however looked a lot different, one eye looking to be completely back to normal, and Chris had a sneaking suspicion that it had the best vision in the world. The other one was eerily strange, the pupil was a dark purple color and the rest of his eye was a light blue.

                Chris turned his attention back to V. He was almost done with the pressure points. Chris started to feel nervous the more and more as V went on with the pressure points. Suddenly when he pressed on the last point Chris’ vision turned white from the surge of lightning that arched out of the arm and Chris jolted awake from his sleep.

                Chris looked at the clock and it was almost six in the morning. Chris heard a knock at the door and got up to go answer it. He rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes before opening the door and was surprised to see V standing there. V smiled at Chris and shook his hand before Chris had even said anything.

_“Everything is ready to go when you guys are! Well, I am anyway. Alpha might not be all there yet but I have my little… gift I guess you would call it in the trunk and I can take you guys there with me whenever you are ready to go.”_

                Chris said thank you and invited V in to stay for a bit since he had just woken up and was not even sure if Piers was awake. Hope didn’t seem to be awake yet either but then again the door to the bedroom had been shut when Chris walked out last night so she might just be sitting in there. Chris walked to the back room while V waited on the couch. He opened up the door and got jumped by Hope as soon as it was open enough for her to fit through. Chris fell on the ground laughing as he got blitz attacked with a dog tongue to the face. It took him a moment to get Hope off of him but when he did he saw Piers sitting on the bed looking in his direction. Chris walked in and sat down next to Piers.

 _“Hey, how are you doing?”_ Chris said as casually as he could.

 _“Good, so you are finally awake are you Captain?”_ Piers was smirking like he knew something Chris didn’t.

 _“Uh yeah… I mean it is only like six in the morning why are you smirking like that?”_ Chris was getting pretty curious with the mischievous look Piers had on his face.

 _“Oh no reason… I just set a few of the clocks to a random time because I obviously can’t see.”_ Piers gave Chris a lopsided grin and Chris playfully punched him in the shoulder.

_“Heh, well anyway, V is here to take us out if you are ready to go.”_

_“Uh, yeah, about that… would you be able to help me take a shower first so I don’t like fall down and break my head…”_ Piers was frowning slightly at Chris and turning a little bit red.

Chris chucked softly to himself, _“Yeah Piers of course.”_

                After they were both done getting showered and ready for the day Chris led Piers out into the living room where V was still waiting. V led them out to his vehicle and they got Piers situated in the back and Chris was going to sit up in front but V convinced him to sit back with Piers. V gave Chris a little remote and told him that Piers could use it to play whatever music he might want to hear.

                When Chris got into the back of the truck he handed the remote to Piers and explained to him what it was for, thankfully it seemed to be voice activated so Piers could just speak into the remote to have whatever music he wanted to play. Chris was delighted and surprised to hear the music that Piers started playing. Piers had started playing _*Somebody’s Chelsea*_ and he was smiling at Chris.

Piers had to hold himself back from laughing, _“Captain, would you care to sing with me?”_

Chris looked up to the front of the truck towards V but he didn’t seem to be paying any attention so he turned back to Piers and said, _“Yeah Piers, I would love to.”_

                Chris didn’t go along very well at first so he only joined in on certain parts that he knew completely. It was heartwarming to Chris whenever they sang the *I want to be somebody’s Chelsea, somebody’s world, somebody’s day and night* and the *a love story that never has an end* parts, always getting a heartwarming smile from Piers as he leaned in closer to Chris. Once they sang those words for the last time in the song Chris pulled Piers in and gave him a kiss, murmuring to him that he doesn’t want their love story to have an ending. At one point Chris saw V look back and give him a thumbs up smiling.

                It took them about an hour to drive to the B.S.A.A. base that they were meeting Alpha at. They started unloading and Chris saw V pull out a huge case that looked like it was long enough to hold a rifle in it, and he had several more power units that he slung across his shoulder as well. Chris followed V while he was helping Piers along and they ended up in front of a target practice building. They went inside the door and it was completely empty except for Alpha Team standing there. V walked over and set the stuff down and turned around smiling while the rest of Alpha Team greeted Chris and Piers.

Ares was the first to walk up, smiling bigger than anyone else, _“Hey Captain, hey Piers! You guys ready for today?”_

Chris smiled, _“I think Piers should be ready more than anyone.”_

Piers perked up at hearing that, _“R-ready for what, exactly?”_

That is when V spoke up, ushering Chris to bring Piers over, _“This is what you should be ready for Mr. Nivans.”_

                V was opening up the case he brought with him and slung off a few of the power cases, keeping one in front of his chest again. Chris mused that it was time for Piers to have some more arm therapy. Chris was surprised, what V pulled out of the case looked like it might have been Piers’ old Anti-Materiel rifle but with some modifications. V brought up a chair and motioned for Chris to help Piers sit down on it. V went through the motions of their arm therapy again, shooting lightning off three more times. When he went in to do it a fourth time Chris became quite curious.

_“Alright Mr. Nivans, so this time we are going to see if we can get movement in the clawed portion and help you bend it a little bit so get ready for this one.”_

                Piers nodded at him and V slung a power unit in front of him that was twice as big as the other ones. V focused in two places on Piers’ arm, four points in each location. The first location was the wrist area near the claw and the second was where Piers’ elbow would be at, when the lightning went off it was actually not blue, but a dark purple color which was actually quite amazing to see. V slowly had Piers try and move his arm, and he was able to slightly bend it and open and close the clawed portion fairly well.

                V had Chris set up the rifle on a stand so that Piers would be able to use it, and looking at it Chris saw that V had made two detachable triggers, one for a normal hand and one that would accommodate Piers’ mutated claw. He also pulled out some goggles and secured them on Piers head, he then slowly slid them down in front of his eyes and after a few seconds he turned a dial on the side. Chris heard Piers gasp.

_“M-my eyes… I can **see** almost perfectly… what did you do with these goggles?”_

V chuckled at him, _“I got some magnification equipment and used the bio-electricity as like a… improvised power unit to help increase vision, it’s kind of hard to explain but bio-electricity can be adapted to help with improvements, such as these goggles and the scope that is on your rifle.”_

                That is when Piers noticed the rifle and he looked over at it with his mouth hanging open. Chris caught a glance at what was below Piers’ goggles and saw that his eyes were tinted dark blue, and it seemed like there was less of those root-like object going across his eyes, almost like they were transparent. V took him over to it and pulled the chair up by it, all the while Chris noticed that Alpha was just watching what was happening. Quentin and Ed seemed to be looking in closer than everyone else, probably feeling proud that they were able to help get a soldier like Piers back to the B.S.A.A.

                V helped Piers get situated with the rifle and actually had Piers start taking a few practice shots. The recoil was horrible for him but he held it in, probably being helped that they almost had it nailed into place with the stand they were using.

                The members of Alpha were happy to see that Piers was getting along good with everything. A few of them had left throughout the time that they were there, they mainly just wanted to be here to say hi and show Piers that people could still do things for him. After about an hour more of shooting Piers was too tired from it all to keep going. At this point the only people left were Chris, V, Piers, and Quentin.

                After Piers was done shooting V packed the stuff up and Quentin left since they were all done, but not before giving Piers a pat on his mutated shoulder, wishing him luck. V put the rifle in a case and before he closed it he ejected one of the power units out of the scope it had and started to explain how some of the stuff worked in a little bit more detail.

_“Ok, so the scope here works off of the bio-electricity as well. It is tied to your eye’s movement while you are looking into it. It can… *sense* for lack of a better term, when you are focusing on something specific and it almost acts as a telescope, it can zoom it further than any other scope you are going to find. As for the goggles, those work off of the power units as well, they can actually help with healing his eyes quicker with the bio-electricity that goes through it. It gives off almost unnoticeable shocks every few seconds aiming it towards the locations that are covered with the C-Virus and helps to speed up its healing properties a lot. As for the two triggers they are detachable, you just need to let me know when they need to be switched out once Piers finally gets his arm back.”_

                Piers and Chris both smiled and shook V’s hand. V finished packing up the rifle and slung the power units over his shoulder while he carried the case out to the truck. He set the stuff in the back and got in the driver’s seat. He had Chris sit in the back with Piers again while he started driving off. V gave them one last piece of advice before they actually left the base.

_“By the way, do not wear those goggles **all** the time, I’m not really sure what kind of lasting effect it would have getting those shocks twenty four seven, so for now just wear them when you need to go out for something or when you go to sleep, any other time keep them off okay Mr. Nivans?”_

                Piers shook his head responding with *yes* so quick Chris hadn’t even blinked. Chris couldn’t blame Piers though, it must be exhilarating for him to finally have his sight back, even if this wasn’t a permanent fix, and they still had to wait for the virus to finish its work. Piers picked up the remote again and had *Somebody’s Chelsea* play one more time. Chris and Piers spent the rest of the time back to their house singing along together just wishing that it could never end.


	8. Reawakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wheel chair part is in NO way meant to be funny.
> 
> If you have any ideas please do leave them in a comment for me i would love to get your guys' ideas into this story!
> 
> Also: If you catch my reference to another fic. I LOVE U If you don't read the bottom notes.

Chapter 8: Reawakening

“Confronting the Past will bring to light a brighter future.” ~Unknown

 

                V dropped Chris and Piers off at their house. Chris watched as he drove back down the street and entered his own home. Chris walked up to the door where Piers was standing and started looking for the house key. Piers was leaning on the side of the house off to Chris’ left, smile still on his face. Chris couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. Piers looked so radiant and happy that it was hard to remember the sour moods he had been in lately.

                Chris knew Piers couldn’t, or rather, wouldn’t be able to see well without the goggles but that didn’t mean much. Chris would take Piers around in a wheel chair until the day one of them died if that is what it would take. Looking back, Chris wished he would have been the one to take the virus, just so Piers never had to suffer through what he is now. But then, where would they be now, would Chris have been able to do what Piers did? There were so many layers to the sniper Chris had never seen and he felt like he was just now getting to unravel them step by step.

                Chris found the key he was looking for and stuck it in the door handle, slowly turning it and with every click a new sense of relief seemed to wash over his body. They were home, finally, after all those battles and fighting for their lives they finally have a chance to relax. The door finally opened and Chris allowed Piers to go in first. Before completely entering Chris glanced around the neighborhood. There was just a couple people out right now, with how late it was getting. Chris noticed the hooded man from before but he wasn’t walking towards their house, thankfully.

                Chris looked to the sky to see the sun setting, the sky was a brilliant mixture of red, yellow, and orange, with an orange-yellow sun setting behind it. Chris thought he would have to get Piers out here one day, get a picture of him with the sunset before the arm was gone, to show him that it would all be in the past and the future was nothing but brighter every second. Nothing on the outside mattered to Chris, it was what was on the inside of a person that counted.

                Some of the most horribly disfigured people in the world had the kindest hearts; while those with so much more were horrible people. Piers definitely fell into the *horribly disfigured* category, after all he was infected with a virus. Piers however still had what made him, _him_. Chris slowly turned around, away from the outside to be greeted by Piers’ watchful eyes and Hope sitting on the couch watching them both.

                Piers was eying Chris curiously, who was becoming slightly uncomfortable under his younger partner’s gaze. Chris could see the bio-electricity shocking his eyes every once in a while. The electricity in itself was bluer than the depths of an ocean, and they gave the young ace an almost eerie look when he had them on his face. Chris watched as Piers took a couple tentative steps towards him, making sure he didn’t run into anything. Piers stopped in front of Chris and they had a tense silence, air thick in a sudden wave of anxiety.

                Chris opened his mouth to say something but clamped it shut when Piers took another step forward, almost glaring at Chris. Chris’ head was starting to break out with a few beads of sweat. Piers must have been very good at disguising his emotions however, because the next moment was completely different then what Chris had been expecting him to do with the venomous glare coming from the young ace.

                Chris let out a soft gasp when Piers pushed him back against the wall, closing the front door. Piers used his good arm to hold Chris’ head and the mutated one pulled him in closer. Chris started back at Piers’ face wide-eyed, and then Piers dived in. Piers brought his face up to his Captain’s and kissed him, all the tension in the air melting away as both of their minds got lost in the moment.

                Chris’ mind was frantic, he never knew how passionate Piers could be and quietly wondered just how many layers of the young ace might have just been revealed from this sort of contact. Chris shivered in ecstasy as Piers’ tongue fought to dominate his own but he let the young ace do his work. Chris let out a quick gasp of surprise as he felt a shock pass through his back where the end of Piers’ claw was.

                Mere seconds after that happened Piers pulled back and stepped away from Chris. Piers blushed and looked to the floor embarrassedly but Chris stepped back to him and clasped both of his hands around Piers’ claw.

Chris looked down at Piers trying to get him to meet his gaze but to no avail, _“Hey, are you ok Piers?”_

Piers still would not look up to meet his captain’s eyes, _“Y-yeah just uh… sorry about the shock.”_

Chris chuckled lightly and only then did Piers look at him, a slight tear threatened his left eye which Chris wiped away with his thumb, _“Piers don’t worry, it takes a **lot** more than that. I’ve always been told I’m a rock.”_

Piers had a small smile cross his face, _“Emotionally or physically Chris?”_

Chris could hear the devilish tone in Piers’ voice, _“Well not compared to what **you** just did Piers I like to think just physically but that is obviously wrong. Compared to you I’m probably about as sensitive as a brick wall is to a car.”_

Piers snorted, _“Isn’t that the truth Captain.”_ This whole time they had still just been looking at each other near the front door.

                Chris finally broke off their embrace, sauntering over to sit on a chair while Piers was left to follow like a lost dog. Piers sat down next to Hope who looked at him expectantly and he began scratching absently at the backs of her ears.

                Chris sat there for a moment, watching the goggles do their work on Piers’ eyes. They kept sparking about every five to ten seconds, bio-electricity seeming to work at the shells over his eyes. **_*Like electric blue*_** Chris mused, a smile coming to his face at that very thought. Chris smiled as Piers raised an eyebrow at him, slightly moving at a shock that now went into his face rather than the shell around an eye.

Chris chuckled slightly before answering the look from Piers. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, _“Just watching those goggles do their work Piers. It is actually kind of… fun to watch it.”_ Chris just offered a stupid lopsided grin to Piers narrowed eyebrows.

                Piers finally smiled back at Chris, losing himself in the thought of just how exactly he looked right now. His vision was tinted a dark blue color, and he could actually _see_ the occasional strike of electricity. Aside from when he was shocked on his skin, when he saw the electricity he never really felt it, noticing how it usually seemed to stop just before it would touch his eye.

                If Piers focused intently he could see an almost blurry but nearly invisible almost wall like obstruction in his view. Piers decided to slide the goggles up a bit and look at his normal vision. His vision was a _lot_ better; he could see a few feet away now rather than just a few inches. His vision was still tinted blue slightly but soon that faded away and it became blurry again, the shell over his eye becoming more and more visible.

                Piers sighed to himself, sliding the goggles back into place. His vision returned once again with a blue tint. Chris got up and walked over to Piers, sitting down next to him. He put an arm around Piers’ shoulder reassuringly. Piers looked up with a lazy smile to his captain.

 _“I look ridiculous don’t I?”_ Chris could hear the tone of uncertainty in his voice.

Chris scoffed at him, _“Not at all Piers! I mean you almost look like some kind of shuttle pilot, what’s ridiculous about that?”_

                Piers chuckled slightly at the stupid grin Chris had on his face. Piers leaned over and gave Chris a quick but passionate kiss on the lips. When he finally pulled away Piers quickly became immersed in his own thoughts. He soon began to wonder when this would end, what they would do tomorrow, hell he even wondered what could be happening _ten years_ from now. Hopefully fighting bio-terrorism or even having it at its end, but more hopefully, doing whatever he was doing at that time with Chris. Piers would die ten times over if it meant he could be with Chris.

                Piers was stirred from his thoughts as he felt a hand land on his shoulder. He turned his head to see Chris had him affixed with an intense scrutinizing gaze. Piers was about to ask what was wrong when a ring caused him to stay quiet. Piers watched as Chris picked up the phone with a disinterested grumble before looking at the screen. Piers saw a momentary look of confusing cross his face before answering the phone.

_“This is Captain Redfield, who is this?_

The voice came in as a small whisper at first before realizing that Chris could not hear him, _“Hi, Captain Redfield, before I say anything could I ask you to make this conversation more private from Piers Nivans if he is nearby?”_

                Chris raised an eyebrow and mumbled something unintelligible into the phone. Chris looked over to Piers and motioned for him to stay. Chris walked into the bedroom and closed the door before bringing the phone back to his ear.

 _“Okay, so who am I speaking to exactly?”_ Chris’ tone of annoyance was apparent through the phone.

Chris could hear the other person take a deep breath and exhale, _“This is… Piers’ father. We were told he’s alive and well… we were wondering if we could visit?”_

Chris thought for a moment, _“I don’t know… but you should probably ask him yourself first.”_

Chris could hear the man trying to calm his nerves, _“I know it’s just… I don’t know if he would want to see us but I know he would at least consider it if his commanding officer agreed with it.”_

Chris scratched his chin in thought for a moment, _“I’ll agree to it but I won’t force him to do it if he doesn’t want to. Are you sure you want to visit, do you know what happened?”_

Chris could feel the man’s nervousness again, _“N-no we were just told he survived an explosion with… complications.”_

Chris nodded to himself, the B.S.A.A. wasn’t exactly known for giving a lot of info, _“Well you know we fight bio-terrorism correct? Well… he had **those** kinds of complications.”_

Chris waited for a moment after he heard the breathing all but stop. He heard a woman’s voice through the phone and soon someone else was on the line.

_“Hello, Captain Redfield? This is Marissa Nivans, and I know full well what the B.S.A.A. does so please explain to me exactly what happened.”_

Chris took a moment to choose his words, _“He was infected by the C-Virus and mutated, he is still alive and in full control of himself however. Doing what he did destroyed a creature that was created to destroy the world; he is the bravest man I have ever met.”_

There was an approving tone in the woman’s voice, _“That is my Piers for you, but I do believe you are holding something back, but may I speak to Piers please?”_

                Chris was cautious for a moment. The woman knew he was holding something back but there was no telling how much she actually knew. Chris kept her on the line, opening up the bedroom door and moving back into the living room. He sat down next to Piers who gave him a questioning looked as he handed him the phone. Chris motioned to the phone and brought it up to Piers’ ear.

 _“This is Piers Nivans, who is this?”_ Piers was quite curious at this point.

Then the voice came over the phone, _“Hi son. It’s good to finally hear your voice again.”_

                Chris dashed for the phone so it didn’t break. Piers practically froze and the phone fell to the ground. Chris looked back up at Piers and his face was ghostly pale while his head was clammy with sweat. Chris put a hand on his bad shoulder to calm him down and looked into his eyes. Piers’ breathing slowed and he looked back at Chris. Chris gave him the phone back and watched him even closer than before.

Piers slowly brought the phone back up to his ear, _“H-hi… mom…”_

                Chris was close enough that he could actually hear them. He wasn’t sure why Piers was so nervous but he figured it had something to do with his family before he joined up with the B.S.A.A.

_“Honey, are you OK Piers?”_

_“Y-yeah mom, how uh, how are you guys doing?”_

She laughed into the phone, _“I’m fine Piers but I have a question. Would we… be able to come visit?”_

                Piers set the phone down and looked at Chris; his eyes were wide and had a variety of emotions running rampant. Fear, depression, shock, and several others that Chris could not yet identify. Piers then turned his head even more and asked Chris a question.

 _“W-what should I do, Captain?”_ His voice was quiet enough to not be heard through the phone but loud enough for Chris to hear.

Chris smiled at him, _“Whatever you want to Piers. I think it would be a good idea but if for some reason you don’t want to then you don’t have to.”_ Chris whispered into Piers’ ear, calming him down some more.

Piers took in a deep breath and then brought the phone up one last time, _“Y-yeah mom, you guys can come visit.”_

                Chris could hear an excited cheer through the phone, and then Piers hung it up. Chris pulled his partner in closer to hug him, the smaller of the two relishing in the warmth that Chris was providing. Piers’ skin had become a little cool to the touch and Chris could not help but feel that this visit was going to be a very _long_ visit and he might very well get pissed off with somebody.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reference was in turn to Fathobbitlover's Like Electric Blue. The phrase *Like Electric Blue* is the name of the fic written by Fathobbitlover and is said towards the end of the first chapter and i am absolutely in LOVE with that phrase! you can add it on the end of so many tense things in stories and it makes it funny/or better
> 
> The 2nd reference was also to Like Electric Blue in which Chris says that Piers looks like some kind of shuttle pilot.


	9. A Break before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm REALLY sorry this is so short! But as the title says this is a "Break before the Storm" and I felt that the ending left it openly nicely for continuation. I was also told that the fluff in this made up for how short it was so I'm happy with that ^_^

Chapter 9: A Break before the Storm

“Loving someone does not mean you want them. Being in love with someone means you can’t imagine spending a second without them.” ~Unknown

 

                After he hung up the phone Chris brought Piers in for a hug. Chris had been called a furnace before and wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Judging by how Piers pretty much melted into the hug, Chris figured that for once one of his nicknames was a good thing for him. Piers was still shivering in Chris’ arms, even though his skin was hot to the touch. Chris wasn’t sure how long this could drag on, Piers was pretty complacent just sitting there in a warm embrace and Chris would be more than happy to oblige him for as long as needed.

                After what seemed like an eternity in his mind Piers stopped shivering. For some odd reason, a shock passed through Chris unexpectedly and Piers all but yanked himself back from Chris, averting his eyes and turning red while starting to violently shake again.

Piers was stuttering like a madman when he tried to speak to Chris, _“S-s-sorry C-c-Chris, I d-d-d-didn’t m-mean t-“_

                Chris moved closer, putting a finger to Piers’ mouth and hugged him. It was obvious that Piers had just scared himself more than he did Chris because he was still shaking like he was about to blow open like a soda can. Hope had gotten off of the couch and was now lying down on the other side of the room, watching both of them as they continued their little chat. Chris tried to calm Piers down. He began stroking the back of Piers’ head slowly, it worked somewhat. Piers stopped shaking so hard but his body was being wracked with silent sobs and Chris was starting to get worried.

Chris started whispering to Piers as softly as he could, _“Shh… it’s ok Piers. Stop being so scared everything is going to be fine. Do you need to talk about it at all honey?”_

                Chris waited for a while, still stroking Piers’ head slowly. Piers started to slowly stop his silent sobs, just coming to be nothing but a bare shiver through his body once in a while. Chris pulled back from Piers, watching him for a moment as closely as he could. Piers slowed himself down even more, and Chris could see a trail of tears going down from Piers’ left eye and down his cheek. Chris wiped it away with the pad of his thumb.

                Piers looked up at Chris after feeling the pad of his thumb against his face. Chris could see that his bottom lip was still quivering just a little bit. Chris pulled him in as closely as he could; getting lost in his memories from the last time he had held someone like he was now.

                Claire had still been a kid when they had lost their mother to cancer. Claire and their dad took it hard and oddly enough though Chris seemed to take it the best out of everyone in the family. He had been closer to her than anyone else even though most of them never realized it. Chris had admired her sense of duty and selflessness, always putting herself last and everyone else in her life first. Even when she was at death’s door she never let it show, never let anyone but Chris know how bad everything really was, the night she passed away, Claire and their dad had broken down.

                Chris had held Claire for hours, telling her everything was going to be ok, that she didn’t need to worry about mom anymore. Nothing really seemed to work as far as words were concerned. After a while it seemed that the only thing that would give Claire some comfort was his presence next to her.

                Then, their father started to try and drink his pain away. He used to be caring but their mother’s death coupled with the drinking he tried to drown it out with made him despondent and they all drifted apart from each other. So, their dad continued to drink his problems away and pretty soon he drank so much that he even forgot who Chris and Claire were all together.

                Chris had promised himself to never be like their dad. Unfortunately for him whoever, he was never able to keep it all in like his mother had and broke down just like his father. You could say that in a way, Chris was the highs and lows of both of his parents. He had the selflessness and sense of duty of his mother, but the way of dealing with problems the same as his father. Lucky for Chris though, he had someone who was able to break him out of his drunken stupors and stop him from drowning himself in booze for the rest of his life. Chris had Piers, and Piers still had his parents, although Chris couldn’t figure out why Piers was so scared.

                Chris was jostled from his memories when he heard some quiet mumbling and a tug on his arm. Chris opened the eyes he hadn’t realized were closed and looked at Piers. His lips were still moving with no sounds coming out while he was still tugging on Chris’ arm meekly. Chris pulled back from Piers and gave him a little bit of breathing space. Chris took another look at the man he had come to know and love. Chris couldn’t imagine spending another second of his life without Piers, not since that day he had found him again, after so much depression and fear of what would happen next in his miserable life.

Finally some sound came out of Piers’ mouth, _“…Why…?”_

                Chris was utterly confused at that single word he managed to understand. He scrunched his eyebrows, wondering if he had heard correctly. No other sounds came from Piers who was lazily looking up at Chris for an answer. He still had the goggles on, shocking the shells over his eyes every so often. Chris moved over next to Piers, wrapping one arm around him and bringing him in closer to his shoulder.

 _“Why what?”_ Chris asked bewildered.

It took a moment before he got a response from Piers, _“… Why me Captain? Why are you doing all of this just for me?”_

Chris was shocked, could Piers really not see why Chris was doing all of this? _“What do you mean, Piers? Why wouldn’t I do all of this for you?”_

Piers snapped back a response almost immediately, _“Why would you even bother to help me, what makes me so special **Captain**?”_

                Chris had to mentally rein himself in after Piers’ surprising outburst. Chris thought he had been getting through to Piers but it was obvious that the call from his parents somehow cut deeper than what he had even first suspected. Chris sighed to himself, it was definitely going to be a very long visit.

Chris spoke as calmly as he could but with astounding conviction in his voice, _“Piers… this goes back further than you know. The last time I held someone like that… it was Claire, after our mother passed away from cancer. Our dad drank his problems away, but he didn’t have someone to drag him back from all of that. I did have someone… I had **you** , Piers.”_

                Piers turned from his focus point he had found somewhere on the floor below them to look at Chris. Chris started back at him, not wavering in the slightest. Piers seemed to weaken under Chris’ gaze. Chris pulled him in close for a hug and Piers began telling him everything Chris had been silently wondering about since the phone call started.

Piers took a few deep breaths before starting, _“S-sorry Sir… my parents never really approved of me joining the B.S.A.A. My dad wanted me to stay in the U.S. and work in the military. The second I had a chance at the B.S.A.A. you know, something greater than just serving the U.S. military, I took it, and we haven’t exactly been on the best speaking terms since then.”_

                Chris absently stroked the top of Piers’ head. After another hour or so, Piers slowly slipped away into sleep, his head falling against Chris’ shoulder with a silent thud. Chris slowly slid Piers down so his head was rested on the arm of the couch and went into their room, grabbing a blanket and pillow. He draped the blanket over Piers and slid the pillow under his head so Piers stayed comfortable.

                Chris walked over to where the phone was sitting and picked it up while looking out the front door. The sun was setting again, a waxing moon appearing in the sky. The moon and sun had the sky filled with a mix of colors between blue, green, and purple.

**It was a peaceful night heralding an incoming storm.**


	10. Dinner

Chapter 10: Dinner

“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” – Thich Nhat Hanh  
         

 

                Chris tore his vision away from the sunset to look back at Piers, who was now deeply lost in thought on the couch. Chris smiled to himself as he watched Piers’ lips open and close of their own accord, almost like he was trying to say something to himself, but no sound was escaping his lips at all. Chris moved a little deeper into their home, grabbing some food from the kitchen and feeding Hope, who barked appreciatively and began wolfing down her food like there was no tomorrow.

                After feeding Hope, Chris moved over to Piers and sat down next to him on their couch. Piers looked at Chris and gave him a lazy, unconvincing smile. Chris smiled back, happiness being much more convincing on his features than what they were on Piers. Chris reached around and grabbed Piers’ mutated shoulder, earning a contented sigh from the younger man, and pulled him into a warm embrace.

                Piers melted into the contact quickly, giving off a second sigh and almost falling asleep at the warmth. Chris stroked Piers’ shoulder, hearing more and more contented sounds the more comforting the feeling got for Piers. Slowly, Piers drifted off to sleep and Chris was left to trace his fingers up and down the slimy green appendage, earning himself nothing more than a trailing feeling of shocks. Chris heard Piers mutter something under his breath that he couldn’t make out, but made no move to disturb the younger man’s much deserved rest.

                Chris slowly drifted off to sleep himself, the sound of Piers’ slow breathing seeming like music to his ears and comforting his worried soul. Drifting off, Chris absently remembered that they hadn’t told Piers’ parents where they were or been told how long it would take for them to get to the house.

                Chris was suddenly awoken during the night. It was dark outside and Chris could hear a loud rumbling thunder in the distance. Hope was quickly and incessantly poking Chris in the face. Chris carefully nudged her away from his face and looked at the clock. It was two twenty three in the morning. Chris rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, albeit somewhat unsuccessfully, and stood up shakily, almost stumbling over himself on the first try. Then he heard the sound, someone was monotonously knocking at the door. Chris walked over and looked through the eyehole; he saw V standing there and he looked almost as tired as Chris was. Chris opened the door and V almost fell inside at the sudden removal of the object from his path.

                Chris chuckled at how groggy V seemed to be. V grunted slightly and stumbled for a moment but righted himself just as quickly. Chris looked at him for a moment, watching V rub the sleep out of his eyes and pretty soon Hope was at attention right next to Chris.

 _“Hey.”_ Was V’s only greeting, eyes still bleary and speech slightly slurred.

 _“Hey, need something?”_ Chris responded while raising a quizzical eyebrow.

 _“Uh yeah, is Piers still here? My monitoring equipment said the battery was running low in the goggles and I thought I would show you guys how to change it.”_ V was slowly getting a bit more of a normal look back on his tired face.

_“Uh yeah, I think he is…”_

                Chris frowned, looking back behind himself. He seemed to notice for the first time that someone had been missing when he woke up. Chris and V started searching the house, trying to find Piers. They had no such luck, Piers was nowhere to be found and Chris noticed Hope was still sitting by the door, head tilted to the side slightly while she watched both of them. Chris walked over to her and noticed how she was trying not to run out of the front door.

                Chris motioned to V and they both walked over to the door. Chris looked outside in any place he could find, vision being slightly impaired by the darkness creeping around him. There still was no sign of Piers around the house, and Chris’ vehicle was still there, so he obviously hadn’t driven away in the night. Suddenly, V had an idea and asked Chris a puzzling question.

 _“Hey Chris, does he have his rifle with him or is it still here?”_ V was now searching the house for the case he had made to contain all of the parts for Piers’ rifle.

                Chris raised a quizzical eyebrow and started searching for it as well. Chris’ search led him to the back room that Piers and him shared together. They found the case open and missing the rifle, along with most of the parts, except for the trigger that was made for a normal human’s hand. Under the case V found a note and handed it to Chris who read it aloud.

_*Hey Chris. I didn’t want to wake you up. Call Quentin when you find this*_

_-Piers_

                Chris sighed with relief, finally knowing that Piers was OK. V was still groggy and rubbed some more of the sleep out of his eyes. Chris grabbed his keys and soon they were on the road. There was only one place Piers would go and Chris didn’t need to call Quentin to find out where that place would be. They rolled into the base’s parking lot after about twenty minutes; all signs of their lack of sleep were finally gone.

                Chris knew the exact building he needed to go to, and practically sprinted over to it, leaving V in his dust. Chris got to the door and almost pulled it off the hinges trying to get inside. He found Quentin in a chair, head on a table and Piers standing nearby with his rifle in hand shooting at some targets. Chris saw they both had on noise cancelling headphones and Quentin was fast asleep with his phone under his head.

                Chris went over and tapped Quentin on his shoulder, receiving a light groan after hearing another rifle round go off from Piers. V came running in before Quentin looked up, stopping with his hands on his knees, while he panted from being out of breath.

_“J-Jesus Chris… what the h-heck are you in such a… hurry for?”_

                Chris looked over at V with a questioning eyebrow.

V was trying not to laugh at him. _“You just freaking sprinted damn near a mile in like two minutes.”_

                Chris turned around and looked out the door. V was right, Chris could barely see their vehicle that was about three fourths of a mile away from the building. Just then, Quentin groaned again, finally looking up at Chris, eyes widening in surprise.

Quentin looked from his phone to Chris and back again while trying to stammer out a response. _“S-sir I-I uh… um…”_

Chris chuckled while he watched Quentin trying not to stumble over himself. Chris put a finger to his lips to motion for Quentin to be quiet. When he did he also motioned for him to take off the headphones, which Quentin apparently had not yet realized he was still wearing. Chris stared at him for a moment with a look of annoyance before he spoke.

Another rifle round went off. _“So why **exactly** did you decide NOT to tell me about this Quentin?”_

Quentin chewed his bottom lip for a moment before he spoke. _“Well… he called and asked me to come pick him up. I mean, I was tired as hell so I didn’t really think about it but then I got here and realized you were still sleeping. I asked him why he didn’t ask you and he told me to…”_

Chris raised an eyebrow at Quentin’s sudden reluctant. _“Out with it Quentin, what did Piers tell you?”_

Quentin swallowed nervously. _“He uh… told me to let his *bear hibernate*.”_

Chris smiled and laughed at Piers’ choice for words. _“That’s all he said? Well let me go talk to him then.”_

                Chris left V and Quentin where they were and walked over to Piers. Chris stood there and watched for a moment. He was seeing what Piers used to be like before China happened. Jaw set, eyes focused, everything that made him the Ace of alpha was standing right in front of Chris, but yet, still seemingly out of reach. Chris observed him even more, noting the way his brow furrowed whenever he was extremely concentrated. The goggles were still on his face, but the blue light seemed to be weaker, almost dimmer than what it was before. Chris also noted the trigger that was made for his claw, how he was still able to use it almost as well as a normal arm.

                Chris moved forward and put a hand on Piers’ shoulder, and unintentionally chose a bad time to do it. When his hand landed on Piers the sudden contact surprised him so much his rifle went up and a round went through the roof. Chris jumped back and winced, glad that he hadn’t whirled around when the round went off. Piers slowly turned around and Chris could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Chris stood there and waited, when Piers finally turned around relief washed across is face as well as a wave of nervousness. Piers slowly chewed at his bottom lip, not wanting to meet Chris’ gaze.

                Chris looked Piers over from head to toe, everything Chris had just seen and wanted back more than anything in the world, his Ace, was now gone. It had been replaced with whatever shell Piers had grown around himself in the time they had been separated. Chris took a slight step forward and Piers took one back, but quickly took another step forward hoping to not be noticed. Chris saw the sway in his movements but decided against himself to say anything about it. Before moving any closer or trying to say anything to him, Chris put a hand on the rifle Piers was holding, slowly pushing it towards a shelf near the two men. Piers offered a little resistance at first, but then he relented his control as he realized Chris wouldn’t do anything until it was gone.

                Piers let loose a sigh of relief when Chris took another step back after the rifle was down but eyed him warily.

_“Do you uh… need something, Captain?”_

Chris hastily told Piers to just call him Chris and then scratched at his chin for a moment, trying to figure out how else to respond to him. _“Yeah… I want to know why you are **here** instead of at **home** it’s not even four in the morning Piers.”_

Piers sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and gave Chris a wry smile. _“Well I have felt so… **restricted** , and this is the one place I can feel… **alive** again, like none of this ever happened.”_

Chris chuckled, once a soldier always a soldier. _“Ok… so why exactly did you get Quentin to bring you instead of me?”_

Piers pinched the bridge of his nose again and snapped back a response. _“Chris, I woke up Quentin like three hours ago. I wanted to give you the chance to sleep because I know my dad is probably going to give me hell when they get here. Why are you so damn worried anyway Chris? Stop treating me like a damn cripple!”_

                Chris wanted to snap back a response about why he cared but stopped himself. Now was definitely **NOT** the time to start arguing with Piers. Chris didn’t say another word, just looked down at the floor and left. Piers stood there in shock, he had expected Chris to yell at him, not walk out of the building. Piers looked to the other two soldiers for help, both of whom tried unsuccessfully to look as if they hadn’t heard anything.

                V quickly said something to Quentin who nodded and looked at Piers while V left sprinting out the doors. Piers walked over to him nervously, chewing his bottom lip. He stopped when he reached the table Quentin was sitting at.

_“I fucked up big didn’t I?”_

Quentin shrugged. _“I don’t know man. You know Chris, I don’t. What I can tell you is that there was definitely something Chris wanted to say to you but left instead of doing so.”_

Pier sighed and mentally scolded himself. _“Yep, I probably just fucked everything up.”_

Quentin smiled and put a hand on Piers’ shoulder. _“Don’t worry I’m sure everything will be fine. V’s going to go talk to him and by the way, he said he needs to see those goggles in the next day or two.”_

Piers sighed again, this time from weariness. _“Alright, I hope I didn’t piss Chris off too badly…”_

oOoOoOoOo

                V quickly said something to Quentin and did so quietly, so Piers couldn’t hear him and then bolted out through the door after Chris. _“Captain Redfield, wait up!”_

                It didn’t take V too long to catch up to Chris. He must have run some of the distance at least, but now he was just walking, trying to avoid speaking to V even though he had stopped to wait for him. As soon as V got to him Chris didn’t even wait, he started walking away immediately.

_“Captain Redfield, hold on Sir, calm down and talk to me!”_

V grabbed his shoulder but Chris threw his and off and kept storming away. _“Ca-“_

Chris whirled around, angrier than before. _“God shut the fuck up already! Can’t you see I don’t want to talk right now?! Stop being so fucking pushy and either leave me alone or just shut up!”_

                V didn’t even have a chance to respond as Chris whirled back around and began storming away, **again**. V decided to just stay silent for now and followed Chris. They walked in silence for a few more minutes and reached Chris’ truck. He pulled out his keys, but V quickly snatched them away. Chris scowled into his hand and then directed a venomous glare at V.

_“Punch me all you want later Captain Redfield, but you are **NOT** driving home like this.”_

                Chris scowled into his hand again but relented because of how quickly V had gotten into the truck. Chris sighed and climbed into the passenger seat, not feeling eager to duke it out with someone over who got to drive.

                Chris didn’t say anything at first, just sat inside and laid his head down on the dashboard and groaned. V sat in the driver’s seat silently as they went on down the darkening roads, which Chris was thankful for. Then the music started to play and Chris almost broke inside.

**_*I want to be Somebody’s Chelsea…_ **

**_Somebody’s World…_ **

**_Somebody’s Day and Night, one and only girl…*_ **

Chris sighed and tried to drop his head even further. _“V…”_

 _“Yes, Captain Redfield?”_ V didn’t look over but nodded slightly.

_“Am I really that fucking terrible?”_

V looked over and raised a questioning eyebrow before turning his eyes back to the road. _“What do you mean?”_

Chris sighed, this time out of frustration with himself. _“I mean, am I really that bad? I was trying to show Piers how much I cared but it backfired so hard and now I don’t know what the hell I should do.”_

V chuckled but Chris sighed at him. _“What the hell’s so funny?”_

V cleared his throat. _“Nothing Captain, you just need to realize how much Piers wants to be independent. Treating someone differently just because something happens, doing that will only make them want to stray away from you. I should know this by now…”_

                Chris raised an eyebrow but sighed, deciding not to push that anywhere. V was right, he ** _was_** treating Piers differently, but it was only because he cared. Suddenly Chris felt a buzzing in his pocket and took his phone out. He had a text from Piers’ parents that they would be there tonight. The next one he got not even five seconds after he finished reading the last one. The message was from Piers, asking if Chris was ok, but he just decided to ignore it for now.

oOoOoOoOo

                They’d both been home for at least three hours now, Chris just a little bit more than Piers had been. V had dropped him off and gone back to his place. Piers had shown up and hour or two later while Chris was cleaning up the house. Piers asked what was going and when Chris responded that his parents would be there for dinner Piers’ face paled where Chris couldn’t see, and then he rushed off to their room. Piers shut the door quietly enough that Chris couldn’t hear and locked the door.

                Piers stayed in their room until his parents got there. When the doorbell rang Hope sat behind the door waiting quietly. Chris saw Piers come out with one of Chris’ hoodies and it looked like he was trying to hide his arm.

                Chris opened the door and let the Nivans into the house. Mrs. Nivans smiled and greeted Chris warmly. Mr. Nivans himself just gave Chris a gruff *hello* and shook his hand. Mr. Nivans smiled when he saw Piers, but then his eyes went wide with shock for a moment when he saw the oversized right arm barely hidden under the hoodie.

                Chris took their bags while he directed them to the table for dinner. Chris made pasta again tonight and poured everyone a small glass of wine. They all sat down, Chris at the head with Mrs. Nivans directly across. Piers and his father then sat across from each other in an awkward silence.

                Dinner started off extremely awkward, more so than when Mr. Nivans had first looked at Piers. Chris had expected this though, although he had expected Mrs. Nivans to be more frightened than the Mr. but that wasn’t the case at all. Chris watched as Mr. Nivans’ eyes never seemed to leave his son’s arm.

 _*Probably expects him to go on a killing spree.*_ Chris thought to himself.

                Chris grabbed his glass for a sip and then things took a bad turn. Mr. Nivans’ frustration seemed to get the best of him but Chris promised himself he wouldn’t do anything to fuck up Piers’ relationship with his parents even more.

 _“Why?”_ The sudden word startled Chris from his thoughts and Piers looked up from his plate.

_“W-what?”_

His father’s words intensified while Chris’ grip on his glass did so as well.

_“I said, **why** , Son.”_

Piers swallowed nervously. _“W-why what?”_

_“Don’t give me that crap! What the hell happened to you?! Why did you leave, the U.S. military could have given you something better than… **that!** ”_

                Chris scowled into his food and Mrs. Nivans caught it but said nothing. She wanted a few answers from Piers herself but didn’t want to ruin this reunion. Although it was obvious her husband has a few different ideas.

Piers snapped back an annoyed response. _“Because the U.S. was too slow to act! The B.S.A.A. **was** and **is** trying to protect the whole damn world!”_

His father bit back some of his response that almost threw Chris over the edge.

_“Well at least we don’t leave our men behind to die! You almost gave your life and look what happened; you turned into one of those damned **things!** ”_

                Chris heard a shattering sound and the room was suddenly deadly silent. Hope moved over from her bowl and nuzzled Chris’ thigh. He looked down at her confused, and then he looked to the other three people sitting with him. They all had a wide eyed look of shock on their faces, and Piers’ parents even looked afraid.

                Chris then followed their gazes and realized they were looking at **him**. Chris looked down at his hand and it was a bloody mess. His hand was still enclosed around the shattered wine glass. Bits and pieces were on the table while quite a number of shards still remained in his hand. Chris looked at his hand in shock; he excused himself quickly and lumbered off to the bathroom to clean his wounds. That left the rest of them to follow his movements with a hint of fear.


	11. Closing Old Wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heartfelt conversation between Mrs. Nivans and Chris Redfield.

Chapter 11: Closing Old Wounds

“Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr

                        Walking away from the table grumbling to himself, Chris couldn’t help but wonder what else he could possibly mess up tonight. Walking to the bathroom, Chris’ eyes followed the trail of blood that was slowly following him as it fell from the open wounds in his hand. Chris opened the bathroom door, ignoring the slight squeak that it gave as he did so, and pulled out tweezers, alcohol, and some gauze while sitting on the edge of the tub.

            Chris grabbed the tweezers first, slowly pulling out a single shard of glass, wincing at the sudden tinge of pain that course through his nerves. Chris dropped the glass onto the nearby sink listening to the _*clink clink*_ sound as it settled in. A small rivulet of blood started to slowly pour out into the tub from Chris’ outstretched hand. Chris tried to strain his hearing and was able to barely hear the hint of a few angry voices from the dining room. Chris heard a knock on the door a couple minutes later and turned around. Mrs. Nivans was in the doorway with an apologetic and fearful look on her face, both at the same time. Chris winced as he looked at her, pulling out another shard of glass, dropping it into the sink with yet another _*clink*_.

 _“Can I help you with something?”_ Chris asked gruffly, although receiving no immediate reply.

**oOoOoOoOo**

            Chris stalked off toward the bathroom in a stupor, seemingly untouched by the large number of glass shards in his hand, a trail of blood following his every step. Mrs. Nivans scowled at her husband, receiving a grimace in return. Mrs. Nivans was definitely NOT someone you wanted to piss off.

 _“Look what you’ve done now!”_ Mrs. Nivans still had her husband affixed with a venomous glare.

Mr. Nivans tried to raise his hands in a halfhearted defense. _“How was I supposed to know he would react like that?!”_

 _“Because.”_ Mrs. Nivans hissed, _“He’s a captain in the B.S.A.A. for crying out loud, how dull can you be?!”_

Mr. Nivans looked at his food ashamed. _“Well… I mean… he wasn’t **that** Captain, was he…?”_

They both looked to Piers who shifted his gaze away, turning red with embarrassment. _“Yeah… he was…”_

Mr. Nivans shifted his gaze back down to his food and Mrs. Nivans gave her son a sympathetic look. _“I’m going to go talk to him. Honey,”_ Mrs. Nivans began again, giving her husband another glare. _“if you say **anything else** to be an ass, WE. ARE. LEAVING. Do I make myself clear?”_

Mr. Nivans muttered an apologetic *yes* as Mrs. Nivans got up to go talk to Chris.

            She slid out of her seat slowly, listening to the slight screech that the chair made as she did so. Giving the mister another venomous glare, Mrs. Nivans turned to Piers and offered another apologetic smile. She walked away and began following the trail of blood that had fallen onto the carpet. It wasn’t a very bad mess, but it was quite noticeable, almost looking like someone had been stabbed, which of course Chris somewhat had been. She felt a lone pair of eyes on her as she walked away, and she smiled slightly because she knew who it was that was watching her. Following the trail down the hall, Mrs. Nivans came to a simple white wood door, hearing the ever so often grunts from behind it.

            Knocking on the door Mrs. Nivans slowly pushed the door open, hearing the slight creak, and taking in the scene before her eyes. Chris was sitting on the edge of the tub, tweezers in hand, and blood pooling slightly in the tub next to him. Mrs. Nivans’ breath slowed slightly when Chris locked his gaze with hers. So many emotions were flying through Chris’ eyes like the center of a tempest. Sadness, anger, fear, happiness, doubt, and still a swirling hurricane of other emotions were in there that Mrs. Nivans just couldn’t identify.

            Mrs. Nivans was so distracted she didn’t even hear it when Chris asked her a question. Snapping out of her thoughts as Chris asked again, Mrs. Nivans blinked twice and shifted uncomfortably.

_“Sorry, what did you say, Mr. Redfield?”_

Chris chuckled to himself slightly, shifting his eyes back to his hand. _“I said, do you need something?”_

Mrs. Nivans cleared her throat and her gaze softened just a little bit. _“Yes, I do, but first, you need to get that hand of yours fixed up.”_

Mrs. Nivans took two steps forward and balanced down on the balls of her feet next to Chris, who looked at her for a moment before mumbling a puzzling question. _“Why do you want to help me?”_

Mrs. Nivans shifted back for a moment and pursed her lips. _“What do you mean Mr. Redfield?”_

Chris looked back to her, grunting as he pulled out another piece of glass. _“What I mean is why do you want to help me? Your husband obviously doesn’t like this one little bit.”_

Mrs. Nivans scowled to herself. _“Jeff can be an idiot, and I just think that he forgot for a moment that you were actually a B.S.A.A. captain before he decided to go off and say something that he really had no place in saying to begin with.”_

Mrs. Nivans frowned when she thought she heard Chris mutter something but decided not to push it. Instead, she moved closer, still balancing on the balls of her feet, and gently took the tweezers from Chris’ hand. He looked at her questioningly with a frown on his face and she just smiled at him in response. Mrs. Nivans slowly began pulling out glass shards from Chris’ hand. She pulled the next one out and another small spurt of blood came out. She quickly grabbed a towel to put under Chris’ hand and decided to work from one end of his hand to the other.

 _“So.”_ Mrs. Nivans began slowly. _“How exactly do you know Piers?”_

Chris cleared his throat nervously. _“Well… I know Piers through the B.S.A.A…”_

Mrs. Nivans smiled to herself while she pulled out a few small shards of glass, dropping them into the sink. _“I know that Mr. Redfield, what I mean is_ **how** _you know him from the B.S.A.A.”_

            Chris shifted nervously on the edge of the tub. When Mrs. Nivans looked up Chris had a faraway look in his eyes. As she watched, a sole tear fell down Chris’ face, making Mrs. Nivans almost gasp at the sight. Mrs. Nivans snapped her fingers in front of Chris’ face and he came back. Chris masked a lot of things, but the look of regret from Chris was something **nobody** would be able to mask within themselves.

 _“I um…”_ Chris began scratching at the back of his head. _“… worked alongside Piers…”_

Mrs. Nivans sighed, shaking her head and covering her face with her hand. _“Mr. Redfield I-“_

 _“Chris.”_ He snapped back quickly. _“Just… just call me Chris.”_

Mrs. Nivans smiled warmly in response. _“Ok, Chris, I already know how you worked with Piers because he told us. I want to hear it in more detail from **you**.”_

            Chris sighed and muttered something under his breath. He looked away from Mrs. Nivans and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He’d changed a lot over the past few weeks. The stress was obviously getting to him. His stubble had grown out and it was staring to get scraggly, while the circles under his eyes were getting darker with every passing day. Chris looked like he hadn’t slept in days, and he might as well hadn’t with the small amount he was actually getting. Mrs. Nivans snapped her fingers in front of his face again, and Chris was brought back to the conversation once again, something Chris was beginning to admire.

Finally, Chris sighed and began telling the story. _“I… was his Captain. We lost some men in Edonia, and I couldn’t cope with it very well. Piers he…”_ Chris swallowed thickly. _“He spent six months tracking me down to set me straight, something everybody else had probably all but given up on. There was a woman that caused those deaths in Edonia. I saw her again in China and my mind went red. I wanted to bring her in… no that’s a lie, I wanted to **kill** her for what she had done.”_

            Chris took a moment to breath. Mrs. Nivans plunked a few more shards of glass into the sink. A couple more slices in Chris’ hand started to bleed slowly, and most of the other wounds had stopped bleeding all together. Mrs. Nivans put her hand onto Chris’ non bleeding one softly, trying to urge him to continue.

Chris sighed again. _“He tried to turn me back, make me see reason but… I wouldn’t. Eventually we had to go save the only hope we had for a vaccine against the C-Virus. Piers he… his arm got messed up really bad. I was about to die and he… he injected himself… for **me**. I tried to get him to leave with me and we got to the escape pods. Piers… pushed me in and hit the eject button. The only thing I could think of when I flew away in that pod was **Why Me?** What made **me** so special when **Piers** had so much more to live for?”_

            Mrs. Nivans smiled as Chris finished his telling of what happened. That was her son, someone who would go to the ends of the world to save someone he loved. She finished pulling the last of the glass out, dropping the final shards of some twenty to thirty pieces into the sink. Mrs. Nivans grabbed the alcohol and rag, using them to clean Chris’ hand, who winced at the sting the alcohol brought along with it.

 _“Chris,”_ Mrs. Nivans said as calmly as she could. _“Why do you think Piers did that?”_

Chris looked at her for a moment with a neutral expression on his face. _“… He said he did it for the B.S.A.A… for the future. Those were his words.”_

Mrs. Nivans chuckled slightly. _“Chris, I’m sure you know there was probably more to that than what he said.”  
_ Chris had a small smile start playing at the corners of his mouth. _“…yeah… but things don’t really seem to be going that well lately.”_

It was Mrs. Nivans’ turn to be surprised. _“What do you mean Chris?”_

Chris grimaced and looked down. _“Well… earlier today, well really early this morning, I woke up to a friend of ours knocking. We couldn’t find Piers but found the note he left for me. He was at the base’s shooting range and I kind of snapped and asked why he didn’t wake me up and ask me to take him there. That pissed him off but everything he said was right, and I just left. We haven’t exactly spoken to each other since then…”_

Mrs. Nivans thought for a moment and smiled apologetically. _“That might be partly our fault because we can be very… headstrong, I guess you would say, in our family. But as far as I can guess, he didn’t want to bother you. It’s obvious to me that you are very protective of Piers. Just try to let him do things on his own or he will never be back to the way he was.”_

Chris looked up and smiled again, and this time he didn’t drop hs gaze. _“Thanks that… that means a lot to me.”_

Mrs. Nivans patted Chris lightly on the shoulder and grabbed some gauze to wrap his hand. _“You know Chris… he wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t care for you. It may be hard sometimes but I can tell that he loves you more than anyone else in the world.”_

Chris nodded and looked down at his now bandaged hand and tried to move it, wincing at the sudden surge of pain. _“I know… sometimes I just wish it had been **me** instead of him. But then I just start to wonder. What if it **had** been me, would we be where we are now?”_

Mrs. Nivans pulled Chris in for a hug. _“Everything happens for a reason, sometimes you just need the will and the reason to understand why it happened the way it did. I know you love Piers and he loves you, just try to show him how much by doing the things you guys used to do together.”_

Chris sighed happily, resting his elbows on his knees. _“Thanks, do you really think it will help?”_

Mrs. Nivans smiled brighter than ever at Chris. _“I know it will Chris, you just have to give it everything you have.”_

Chris smiled back, still holding her gaze. _“I will, should we go back to dinner now?”_

Mrs. Nivans laughed. _“Only if you think you’re ready.”_

Chris nodded back to Mrs. Nivans. _“Let’s go then.”_


	12. Trying Again

Chapter 12: Trying Again

 

 

            Chris got up slowly, still feeling the occasional throb of pain in his wounded hand. Mrs. Nivans finally moved back and stood in front of Chris. Her face was a radiant beam of happiness that seemed to slice its own way through the darkness that seemed to keep threatening to split up Chris and Piers. Mrs. Nivans put a hand on Chris’ tired shoulder and squeezed it lightly, giving him even more reassurance of her thoughts on the matter. Chris smiled back, letting Mrs. Nivans lead him back to the dinner table.

            On the short walk back Chris eyed the trail of blood he had left, almost gawking at the amount of blood that had followed him to the bathroom. It was all dried now, dark red spots staining the carpet and floor almost looking like someone had been shot in this house. Chris looked up from the floor to where Piers and his father were still sitting. Piers’ father was looking down at his food, slowly eating but seeming extremely disinterested in it. Piers was trying to secretly look in Chris’ direction, seemingly scared and hopeful at the same time. When Chris met Piers’ eyes, relief and happiness washed over Piers’ face. Piers’ normally tense shoulders slumped into a more comfortable position and Chris couldn’t help but break into a slight toothy grin.

            Chris picked up the pace, still letting Mrs. Nivans lead the way to the table to be polite. Piers turned back around to the table as Chris and his mother took their seats at the table once again. The room was filled with a fog of nervousness so thick that you could slice it and put it on a plate. Chris avoided looking at Mr. Nivans, and Piers kept a watchful eye on Chris out of the corner of his right eye while he slowly started picking at his food again, wondering if something might happen.

Mr. Nivans was the one who actually dared to break the silence, clearing his throat awkwardly. _“Mr. Redfield…”_ Chris finally looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. _“I’m… sorry… I didn’t mean to offend you in any way with what I said.”_

            Chris just ignored Mr. Nivans for a moment, trying to search for the words to say. He noticed the curious looks from Piers and his mother and all he did in response to them was shrug slightly. He kept looking at Mr. Nivans who still had not even looked up from his food yet, and Chris finally sighed.

 _“It’s… fine…”_ He finally drawled out, dragging the words on slower than a snail could. Chris received a surprised look from Mr. Nivans. _“I… probably would have been the same way if this was a conversation about my sister. Hell, I probably would have been a **lot** worse, so don’t beat yourself up too much about it.”_

            Mrs. Nivans raised her eyebrows at Chris but kept quiet. She was content with watching the somewhat awkward “conversation” unfold before her.

 _“So…”_ Piers said almost silently, clearing his throat and grabbing everyone’s attention. _“How have you guys been lately?”_

Mrs. Nivans and her husband both looked grateful for the slight change in subject. _“Not much going on honey, just trying to keep your siblings in line as always.”_

A slight twinkle came to Piers’ eye at the mention of his siblings. _“Just as much trouble as they’ve always been?”_

Mrs. Nivans laughed with her husband chuckling right after her. _“Natalia is even worse now that you aren’t home to occupy her, and Tom is the same as he has always been.”_

Piers smiled, and Chris himself was even beginning to enjoy their little conversation.

 _“So Mr. Nivans, what exactly do you do with the U.S. military?”_ Leave it to Chris to steer the subject back to what caused the problem.

Mr. Nivans stayed silent for a moment, twirling bits of pasta around his fork. _“I help with strategy and mission planning. More recently though… helping with the aftermath of Tall Oaks. Not everything can always be blown up with a bomb.”_

The corners of Chris’ mouth twitched into a smile as he looked over to Piers. _“Something I think we can **all** appreciate right now.”_

            Piers returned the smile almost shyly as Mr. Nivans looked up to see Piers, smiling himself for once that evening. For Chris, it seemed like something might actually be going right for once tonight. Hope even went over and nuzzled Mr. Nivans’ hand, who looked down at her quizzically but smiled nonetheless.

_“Where did you guys manage to find a dog like this?”_

            Pier smiled and took the initiative to tell the story, short and sweet, just the way Chris preferred stories to be. _“Captain Redfield found her while I was still in the hospital. It just so happened to be that I already knew her.”_

            Mr. Nivans smiled, apparently content with that answer. The group of four sat together for a while longer, finishing dinner off in a much less awkward and bloody way. This time around, everyone managed to avoid shattering a wine glass with their hand, which Chris’ carpet was thoroughly thankful for. All throughout dinner, Piers kept stealing glances at Chris’ hand, he never once tried to move it.

            After dinner they all retired for the evening. Piers took his and Chris’ bedroom while Mr. and Mrs. Nivans took the guest room. Chris received a little bit of resistance but would never take no for an answer when someone was a guest in his house. Everyone else but Chris seemed convinced of the fact that he should take a bed on account of his hand, but he assured them he was just as comfortable with the couch.

            After he was able to convince everyone else to take a bed, Chris sat down on the couch watching Mr. and Mrs. Nivans walk away while Piers stayed nearby. Walking over to lean over the couch, Piers stared at Chris intently for a moment. Chris returned with a stare of his own, his face a mask of emotions that were all but invisible.

_“Chris… why are you staying out here, you know we can share the room right?”_

Chris smiled and glanced back towards the Nivans’ room. _“Yeah, but I figured that I should try to keep the awkwardness down as much as I can, not really sure how your father there would take it.”_

Piers just shrugged and gave Chris a peck on the cheek. _“See you in the morning, Captain.”_

Chris smiled again. _“See you in the morning, Piers.”_


	13. Drunken Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song for this chapter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoQrH6EMnas

Chapter 13: Drunken Love

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

 

            Chris watched as Piers slowly walked back to their room. Piers stopped in the doorway, glancing back at Chris while raising an eyebrow at him in questioning. Chris just smiled back and waved for him to go inside the room. Piers did so, and closed the door as quietly as he could so as to not disturb his parents in the room across the hall. Chris remained sitting on the couch, still staring at the door for a moment before turning forward.

            Chris picked up his phone and started thumbing through contacts figuring out who he could talk to. _“Sherry… Jill… Claire… Quentin… Barry…*_

            Chris smacked a hand to his forehead as his sight reached a more recent contact. V, earlier that day he had mentioned something about needing to see Piers. Chris tapped a few icons to send him a message and he hoped that nine P.M. wasn’t too late.

Sliding his huge figures across the screen, Chris had to try a few times to get the message to come out right. _*Hey, V.*_

            Chris waited a few minutes, almost putting his phone down before he felt it buzz in his hand.

_*Is this Cpt. Redfield? Whatcha need sir?*_

Chris ran a hand through his hair for a moment. _*Not much, just wondering what you needed Piers for? Just got done having dinner with his parents.*_

            It took a long minute before Chris received a reply. _“Really now Captain, haven’t even gone on a proper date yet and his parents are already eating at your house? ;)*_

Chris turned red for a moment even though there was nobody there to see it. _*Uh… not really… they just came to visit and things were a little choppy at first.*_

_*Haha ok big guy I gotcha ;) But on the Q you had, I just needed to check the batteries in his stuff, why?_

_*No real reason, I was just going through contacts and saw you, completely forgot what you needed earlier.*_

_*Alright. Hope you don’t want me to come over and do it now Cpt. Redfield, kind of late and had a long day.*_

Chris chuckled to himself, he knew all about having long days. _*Nah no rush. Going to surprise Piers with a trip to the shooting range I think, mind meeting us there tomorrow?*_

_*Yeah sure thing. :) Now I’m going to head to sleep, see you tomorrow Cpt. Redfield.*_

_*Cya.*_ and with that the conversation was over.

            Chris decided to text Sherry next and give her an update on things.

_*Hey Sherry, it’s Chris.*_

Chris received a response back so quickly he had to blink to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. _*Hey Chris, what’s up?*_

Chris chuckled to himself at Sherry’s apparent eagerness. _*Not much, just wanted to give you guys an update on Piers.*_

_*Really? How’s he doing, you guys getting along ok?????*_

_*Sherry, Sherry, calm down and breathe. We are **fine**.*_

_*:) That’s good to hear Chris, so how has he been holding up himself?*_

Chris scratched his chin in thought for a moment. _*Well, he has had his ups and downs which I am sure you would probably suspect he would have. His parents are leaving in the morning and dinner was probably an up and down like no other.*_

_*o.o really Chris?*_

_*Yeah… let’s just say that one of my hands isn’t that good right now…*_

_*I’m taking everything breakable out of your house Chris…*_

_*Hey! I don’t want to be homeless Sherry!*_

_*I didn’t say I was taking the house Chris…*_

_*Oh uh… night Sherry.*_

_*Lol, night Chris.*_

            Chris sat the phone down and laid back on the couch to think for a moment. That was a bad idea but those seemed to follow Chris like white on rice. His eyelids started to fight himself to close the second his head touched a pillow.

            When Chris opened his eyes it was as if he wasn’t really in his body. He was following Piers but it didn’t seem like Piers knew he was there. Piers was running in what seemed like giant circles. His mutated arm hung limp at his side. As he moved the arm seemed to move more and more. Suddenly, Piers stopped and looked around as if searching for someone.

_“C-Chris! The a-arm is breaking! Chris, where are you, Chris?!”_

            Chris tried to step forward but was rooted in place. His voice and body wouldn’t work for him. He watched as Piers continued to look around frantically.

_“Chris, where are you?!”_

Silence. Nothing answered Piers’ desperate calls for Chris except for the sound of crickets and an increasing roar of thunder.

_“Chris?! Chrissss!!!!!!!!!”_

            Chris was suddenly awakened to find a cold cloth on his forehead. First, he opened his eyes, looking around slowly to see if anyone was in the room. His head was elevated and there was an icepack wrapped under the cloth on his head. Vision falling on the digital clock on the other side of the room, Chris saw that it was almost noon; Piers’ parents had probably left already. Chris tried to get up but felt a sharp pain in his neck. He quickly fell back down with a groan.

            Chris felt a shuffling below his feet. He shifted his gaze down and saw Hope’s head pointed towards him, watching, almost knowingly as if there was something Chris wasn’t aware of. Chris smiled weakly while his eyes closed slightly.

_“Hey girl…”_

            Chris reached forward to scratch her behind the ears but as soon as he tried he pulled back, feeling a sharp sting of pain in his neck again as he moved it. Chris groaned and just decided to lay there staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure how long it had been but he could always feel the rhythmic breathing of Hope who stayed nestled under his feet.

            Eventually a sound came at the door and Hope got up off the couch to go sit in front of the door and wait. Chris didn’t try to move his head, just tried to shift his vision towards the door, the icepack and cloth from earlier was now getting a little warmer albeit it was still cold and mostly frozen. After a few moments of hearing noises and some keys jingling Chris saw the door open and Piers stepped through. Piers smiled down at Hope and scratched her behind her ears, whom leaned her head forward in appreciation.

            Piers smiled and laugh a little bit at Hope and Chris noticed Piers was carrying something in his other arm. He had a plastic bag hooked around the very end of his clawed arm and wondered what was in it. Piers walked over to the couch Chris was on and his eyes widened in surprise at first as he noticed Chris had his open but hadn’t said a word. Piers reached down and felt the cloth and icepack, noticing that they weren’t as cold as they could be he quickly got another cloth and icepack to replace the ones that were already on Chris’ head. He came back in and switched them out, hurriedly putting the old cloth in the kitchen and the icepack in the freezer before returning to where Chris was.

_“So Chris… how are you feeling?”_

Chris swallowed thickly; his throat was feeling extremely dry. _“Like I got run over by a fucking truck… what happened?”_

Piers shrugged. _“Don’t know. Parents went to leave and mom noticed you had some kind of fever going on in your sleep. She let me know and I came out here to get you taken care of and I grabbed some stuff from a drug store to give you to hopefully make you feel better.”_

Chris smiled weakly. _“Thanks Piers.”_

Piers laughed at Chris. _“Don’t mention it, Captain.”_

Chris narrowed his eyebrows for a moment. _“Stop that.”_

Piers’ own eyebrows narrowed in confusion. _“… Stop what, Captain?”_

_“ **That** , stop calling me Captain, just call me Chris.”_

Piers gained a mischievous glint in his eyes. _“Really, or do you want me to call you Captain Bearfield? Or would you want me to call you one of our other little names?”_

            Piers finished that statement with a wink as he got another weak smile and chuckle from Chris. Piers started pulling out some supplies from the bag he had and got them ready for Chris. He pulled out some ibuprofen and cold medicines. Chris continued laying there as Piers got everything ready but felt like trying to start some kind of a conversation.

_“So… how did you get this stuff?”_

Piers looked at Chris in confusion. _“What do you mean?”_

_“How’d you get this stuff?”_

Piers frowned slightly, not understanding where Chris was going with this. _“Umm… I walked out of the house and down the street to get it?”_

Chris rolled his eyes. _“That’s not what I meant Piers. I mean did you get someone to go with you?”_

Piers formed an *o* with his mouth, realizing what Chris had meant. _“Yeah, I got V to go with me.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow. _“Really now, did he ask you anything?”_

Piers frowned in curiosity. _“Not really… just asked what was going on and I told him that you had some kind of fever going on, why?_

Chris cleared his throat nervously, hoping to not reveal anything _too_ important. _“Nothing really… just curious.”_

Piers smiled, seemingly satisfied with that answer. _“Ok then, takes your meds and let’s go out a little bit later ok? I really just feel like getting out and doing something today, being cramped up in this house sucks.”_

Chris chuckled. _“Oh really, we won’t have to drag you out this time?”_

Piers chuckled himself. _“No not this time Daddy Bear. You thinking of any place in particular we could go to maybe?”_

Chris shrugged and downed his medications before continuing. _“Not really…”_ Chris feigned a thinking gesture which Piers seemed to believe. _“… how about the shooting range at the base? Does that sound good to you, Piers?”_

Piers smiled and glanced over to where his rifle case was resting. _“Sounds good to me Chris! When are we going to head on over to the base?”_

Chris smiled and moved up off the couch, groaning slightly which had Piers reacting by somewhat rushing forward in case Chris needed help. _“I’m fine Piers really, I’m fine. We can head on out now just grab your rifle while I get the keys.”_

            Piers pursed his lips for a moment but made no move to argue with Chris. Piers walked on over to his resting rifle case while Chris grabbed the keys and quickly headed on out of the door. Piers grabbed the case and slung it over his shoulder, relishing in the familiar feel that he used to miss before they had found him in that cave. He turned around towards the door and saw Hope looking at him quizzically. Piers walked over and scratched her behind the ears which earned him the satisfaction of her leaning her head forward in pleasure. Piers chuckled and moved away to fill her food and water dish before they left.

            Filling it up and turning around again Piers saw Hope sitting by the doorway with her head tilted to the side. Piers smiled walking over to her. He scratched her behind the ears again and bent down to give her a small hug.

_“Sorry girl, you can’t come with us but maybe another time ok?”_

            Piers chuckled to himself again as Hope’s ears dropped slightly and she almost sulked over and hopped up on the couch while he left, locking the door behind him. He took the steps down from the house to the driveway where Chris was waiting for him, smiling and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the truck. Piers went around the side and hopped into the passenger seat, resting the rifle case between his legs as he heard a familiar tune playing from the stereo.

_*You’re crashing into me like waves on the coast._

_Every time we talk, you move in close._

_I don’t want you to stop; I don’t want you to stop tonight._

_We got the last two glasses on a straw hook bar._

_Trying to remember what number we are_

_String of white lights making your eyes shine tonight…*_

            Piers shut the door and glanced at Chris with a mischievous smirk playing at his lips. Piers saw Chris trying to look away rolling his eyes in amusement. Piers smiled and moved his left hand on over to Chris’ right that was rested in between their seats. Chris finally turned to look at Piers with a gleam in his eye and started to back out of the driveway and head over to the base.

_“Well then Chris, you remember this one now, don’t you?”_

Chris grinned stupidly. _“Oh yeah definitely, how could I forget that this was playing when I found you in the bar before you joined up?”_

Pier snickered. _“Oh please Chris, you **cannot** tell me you didn’t enjoy that.”_

Chris shook his head in amusement. _“On the contrary I enjoyed it quite a lot Piers, even seeing how stupidly silly you can be when you’re drunk.”_

Piers scoffed. _“Oh please, I have **NO** idea what you could be referring to.”_

Chris raised an eyebrow and made a sweeping gesture with his free hand. _“Oh really Piers? So then what happened to that little drunken conversation you were having? *Mary, Mary, where are we going Mary? I’m drunk off my ass we should stay here for the night.* I still can’t believe you were so drunk you thought I was someone named Mary!”_

Piers’ face turned several shades of red. _“Ok truth be told Chris, you already **know** that I **really** was there with someone named Mary. She just happened to know that I hate wimping out on bets and that I can be kind of crazy silly when I’m drunk and yeah… look where she got us huh?”_

Chris laughed warmly while clapping a hand to Piers’ shoulder. _“Definitely, where on Earth would **we** be if you hadn’t made that drunken bet of marksmanship with me eh?”_

Piers rolled his eyes. _“Oh I don’t know, maybe I would be **your** Captain since I was pretty damn close to you while I was probably four times the legal limit drunk off my ass maybe?”_

Chris gave another toothy grin. _“Oh **please** , I was going easy on you because you were drunk as hell.”_

Piers winked at him. _“Oh and look what I still did while I was drunk Chris. What would you say to us having another little marksmanship contest today?”_

Chris raised an eyebrow while pulling into the base’s parking lot. _“Oh really then? You’re on, Ace.”_

Piers grinned while hopping out of the truck. _“Race ya over to the shooting range Bearfield!”_


	14. True Sight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> Enjoy.

Chapter 14: True Sight

 

 

            Chris grinned like an idiot as Piers hopped out of the truck and started running down to the shooting range, rifle case slung securely over his shoulder. Chris turned the truck off and grabbed his own gear, determined to give the unusually chipper Ace a run for his money. Chris opened up the door and saw Piers was already a fourth of the way to the shooting range.

 _“Hey! Get back here Piers!”_ Chris couldn’t help but just keep grinning like a madman.

Piers waved his free hand over his head and kept running. _“No chance in hell you old Bear, you’re gonna have to catch me!”_

            Chris shook his head and took off running, easily starting to gain up on Piers. The base wasn’t very full right now which was somewhat odd but Chris figured a few of the teams had been sent out on a mission. A few soldiers were milling around, all of whom already knew about Piers’ condition, and when they saw Captain Redfield chasing Piers Nivans down to the shooting range, they all smiled. Half of the people on base cheered for Nivans and the other have for Redfield, some even starting a pool for bets to see who was going to win.

            Chris was getting closer to Piers, who was laughing like an idiot, and was almost within an arm’s reach of the rifle case slung across his immobile arm. They were still about a fourth of the way from the range, and Chris was now running beside Piers as Piers himself pushed harder and harder to get there while Chris was simply jogging now.

Piers managed a glance to the side and smirked. _“Finally found your speed Chris?”_

Chris grinned devilishly. _“Nope, just finally caught up after your head start from the truck, feeling a little sneaky today Piers?”_

Piers laughed again. _“No more than usual Chris, I just thought you needed a little incentive to run.”_

Chris rolled his eyes, Piers was starting to slow down. _“Please, as if I haven’t done enough running in my life already.”_

            Piers snickered and kept running. They finished the rest of the run to the shooting range and clambered inside, Piers almost passing out from exhaustion and overuse of his muscles that haven’t seen so much work in a long time. Chris walked over and leaned against a wall, eying Piers curiously. Piers looked up after a moment of panting and smirked at Chris.

_“Waiting for something there, Captain?”_

_“Not really, waiting for **you** maybe, but I’ve got all day long to wait for you.”_

            Piers laughed and stood up slowly, walking over to Chris and giving him a hug. Piers then walked over to a lane at the range and set up his rifle to get ready to shoot.

_“Still sure you want to go up against the B.S.A.A.’s best sniper Chris?”_

Chris grabbed a handgun and MP-AF, walking over near Piers in another lane and rolling his eyes again. _“Best sniper maybe, but I’m sure I can still win with handguns and horseshoes Piers.”_

Piers rolled his eyes and began lining up his scope. _“As if Chris, after all this time I bet you couldn’t hit the back side of a barn.”_

Chris smiled and picked up the handgun, making a quick shot into a targets head without even so much as glancing in its direction. _“So, still think I can’t hit a barn, Piers?”_

Piers gulped a little. _“Um… maybe?”_

Chris smirked and made another shot just like the first. _“ **Still** think that Piers?”_

Piers grunted. _“Ok, ok, fine, you win Chris, you can still hit the backside of a barn.”_

_“That’s what I thought. So, what are we going to compete with today hmm?”_

Piers raised an eyebrow in questioning. _“Oh really, you haven’t thought of what we are going to use yet?”_

Chris rolled his eyes. _“Anymore talk like that and we could just start using grenade launchers if you want.”_

Piers’ eyes widened in surprise. _“I really hope you aren’t serious Chris.”_

Chris grinned devilishly. _“As serious as a heart attack Piers.”_

Piers chuckled and patted Chris on the shoulder. _“Whatever then Chris, I’ll be using my rifle, obviously.”_ Piers patted the case as he took it off his shoulder with a loving smile.

Chris chuckled back. _“In love with your guns as always Piers, go ahead and start shooting though, I will be right back, need to make a call.”_

Piers laughed and waved over his should as he began setting up. _“All right Chris, but don’t stay wimped out for too long!”_

Chris snorted back in response. _“You wish Piers.”_

            Chris walked off looking for a semi-private space that he could make a phone call. He walked by the communications room and figured that would be better than just making a phone call. Chris found a computer and turned it on, waiting while the screen took a minute to boot up. Chris got connected to the communications network and sent Jill a message asking for the contact information of where V was currently stationed.

_*Hey Jill, need to get in contact with V, would you be able to patch me through somehow?*_

_*Hey Chris, how’s it going, and I might be able to not sure, we had to deploy several teams to a hot zone to try and contain a sporadic outbreak of infected activity, although it was a relatively small one it could have grown pretty quickly.*_

_*Really? Damn, do you guys need Alpha Team for any of it?*_

_*Nope Chris, don’t need to worry about that! Especially after China, you guys got enough R &R time to last you years as far as I am concerned. But as far as the infected go, not really, there was just a few dozen J’avo and a couple Nepads but we had to send in a few teams because they were trying to rampage all over the place.*_

_*All right then, do you know how long it might be before you can get me in contact with V?*_

_*Yeah, yeah, hold on let me patch you through I think his team is currently resting at their outpost.*_

            Chris waited a few moments while Jill tried to patch through to the on-sight command post for the deployed B.S.A.A. teams. While he waited Chris decided to pull up another search to see if he could find out some information on this sporadic outbreak of infected activity Jill had mentioned. Chris didn’t have much to go on, being only told the sparse information of *some J’avo and a few Nepads* but he was eventually able to find something that might be what Jill was talking about. Narrowing down the search results by numbers, Chris was able to find that there was only a couple incidents with the range that Jill was talking about. Even further, there was only one single incident in which several teams had to be dispatched to contain it.

**_Case Number: 303719_ **

**_Location: Santa Rosa, Argentina: South America_ **

**_Date: August 27 th, 2014_ **

**_Situation: Three dozen J’avo reported in the area along with up to half a dozen Nepads. Subjects have been seen roaming in groups and conducting a sort of guerilla warfare against the local militia and military forces. Activity is reported to have no enhancing factors in the region, no recent town have been invaded or large numbers of people going missing. It is also reported from a body that was found that these are not newly infected individuals; some seem to have been infected as long ago as the Edonian War._ **

**_Dispatched Personnel:_ **

**_Delta Team: Leader – Captain Dane Salazar_ **

**_Echo Team: Leader – Captain V de la Cruz_ **

**_Charlie Team: Leader – Captain Veronica Green_ **

**_Zeta Team: Leader – Corporal Nezhua Ling_ **

            Chris heard a persistent beeping and switched out of the search session he was in to see that he had a request for uplink. Chris slid the mouse over to click on accept and within a few moments a view of someone came onto the screen. Jill signed off with a message saying *Good Luck* and Chris was left staring at someone he almost didn’t recognize, being shocked into some sort of muted silence. The other person was the first one to speak.

_“Hello there, Captain Redfield, you need something?”_

Chris just continued sitting there in muted silence, staring through the screen, with the other man eventually sighing. _“Captain Redfield, Sir? Do you need something or are you just going to keep staring?”_

Chris swallowed dryly. _“H-hey uh… V… that you?”_

The other man grunted. _“Yeah, why, I don’t look that different, do I?”_

_“Well… um…”_

V snorted. _“Spit it out Captain Redfield.”_

Chris rubbed the back of his head nervously. _“Well… I mean I just wasn’t really expecting…”_

V chuckled while Chris looked at him confused. _“C’mon now Chris, this is nothing.”_

Chris shook his head. _“Nothing, but I mean… you have an eyepatch and your arm is in a cast…”_

V smiled and brought a hand up to the patch, slowly moving it. _“Captain Redfield, it’s not that I’m missing an eye,”_ V moved the patch up, revealing what was beneath. _“It is that I never had one to begin with, and this one got a little… hah… should I say, damaged? As for the arm, it’s just broken, no big deal really. So, what do you need me for Captain?”_

Chris scratched the back of his head for a moment and looked away, but then shifted his gaze back to the screen. _“Well uh… was wondering if you might be back soon to check on Piers’ stuff, you kept trying to do something with it but you weren’t ever able to.”_

V smacked his good hand to his forehead. _“Oh damn that’s right! Kid is probably walking around blind by now that stuff has been out since yesterday!”_

Chris scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. _“Wait… what do you mean it’s been out since yesterday?”_

V raised an eyebrow back at him. _“Uh… they have been out since yesterday… he **should** be walking around pretty much blind at least… why is he not?”_

Chris’ eyes widened in response to V’s statement. _“Well… no actually, he’s at the shooting range now practicing… should I go get him?”_

V smiled. _“Yeah man go get him! I need to see this for myself!”_

            Chris hurried out of the communications room, leaving the screen on with V waiting, while he went to go get Piers. Once he got back to the shooting range he watched Piers for a moment, still performing with pinpoint perfect accuracy. Chris smiled, his Ace never truly would be gone, just buried somewhere deep inside under his shell. Chris walked over and put a hand on Piers’ shoulder, startling him slightly while he lowered his rifle so he didn’t take another shot. Looking over at Chris, Piers smiled but also raised an eyebrow in curiosity at him.

_“What took you so long, trying to get Jill to somehow talk you out of a contest with me Chris?”_

Chris snorted. _“In your dreams Piers, I actually have someone who wants to see you, if you would be so kind as to follow me.”_

_“Really now, who would that be?”_

Chris winked. _“V, he wants to see how you are doing with your eyesight and stuff.”_

Piers gave a small cheer when he heard that. _“Alright yeah let’s go! I’ve been waiting for him to tell me if I am getting better or not for a while!”_

            Chris and Piers both hurried back to the communications room where V was waiting for them. When they got back into the room V was turned around speaking to someone. Chris and Piers decided to stand by and not interrupt the conversation before it was over.

_“Lieutenant, if they are doing something then you need to move in to stop them.”_

_“But sir, we are spread thin as it is trying to find them, we don’t have the manpower to send out a team to stop them.”_

V sighed and brought a hand up to his face. _“We don’t need another team, suit up and I will meet you out there shortly.”_

_“Sir? But you’re arm-“_

_“My arm is fine Lieutenant, and I can still shoot a gun, get suited up and we will move out shortly. That is an order.”_

_“Yes, Sir.”_

            Piers and Chris watched as the soldier walked out of the room, obviously somewhat annoyed, and then V turned around with a sign. When he saw Chris and Piers on the screen with his monitor he glanced behind him and then back to them, putting on an unconvincing smile.

_“Hey you guys, how’s it going?”_

Chris was wondering whether or not he should ask but Piers saved him the trouble of doing so. _“Fine, how are things going there? Doesn’t seem like it is going to good.”_

V shrugged. _“It’s not as bad as it may seem, but such is the price of war I guess.”_

Piers and Chris both nodded in understanding. _“So, Chris told me that someone wanted to see me?”_

V smirked slightly. _“Yeah, Chris has told me some interesting stuff, you can still see?”_

Piers’ brows furrowed in confusion. _“Yeah… why, should I not be able to see right now?”_

V smiled while Chris stayed in the background next to Piers. _“Take your goggles off for a moment.”_

Piers slid the goggles up from his eyes and continued looking at the screen. _“Ok… so now what?”_

_“Turn around in a 360.”_

Piers did that, feeling dumb while doing it. _“Ok? So… where are you going with this exactly?”_

_“Is your vision blue?”_

_“No…”_

V laughed and put a hand on his forehead. _“Chris, maybe you can show him where I’m trying to go with this?”_

Chris chuckled himself and looked at Piers, pointing at his eyes and back to the screen. _“M-my eyes?”_

_“You’re getting closer…”_

_“Uh… I can see better?”_

V grinned. _“Bingo kid! You’re able to see like normal again!”_

Piers looked at Chris. _“Is he serious?”_

Chris laughed and clapped Piers on the shoulder. _“Don’t look at me, look at him.”_

Piers turned back to the screen. _“Are you serious?”_

V shook his head while the Lieutenant from earlier walked back into the room. _“Piers, your goggles have been out for over a day, I’m surprised you are able to see to be honest!”_

The Lieutenant tapped V’s shoulder.

_“Sir, we need to get moving.”_

V turned around and looked at him, sighing.

_“Yeah, yeah, I know. Get the vehicle ready and I’ll meet you out there in a couple minutes.”_

The Lieutenant nodded and walked out.

V shook his head. _“Well, sorry, but looks like I need to get going. I’ll see you guys in a week or two after this is all over.”_


	15. Going Home

Chapter 15: Going Home

“Adversity isn't an obstacle that we need to get around in order to resume living our life. It's part of our life.” ~Aimee Mullins

 

Two (2) Weeks later:

_“Claire! Tell Chris to stop burning dinner up!”_ Piers called from the living room.

Piers got a laughing response. _“You tell him Piers, he’s **your** boyfriend burning up **your** dinner. I learned a long time ago not to trust Chris to make dinner!”_

Chris could be heard giving an audible grunt and short laugh from the kitchen. _“Claire, quit making it sound like I cook poison to eat.”_

Claire winked at Piers as she moved into the living room. _“Oh I don’t know sometimes Chris… you **must** put something in the stuff, I mean how else would someone like Piers stay with someone like you?”_

Chris left dinner alone for a moment and stepped into the living room with a playful smirk. _“Because of my natural charm obviously.”_

Claire raised an eyebrow. _“Really now, what exactly is so charming about a bear who hibernates every night?”_

Chris almost looked offended. _“Hey, bears can be nice and cuddly, am I right Piers?”_

Piers rolled his eyes and chuckled. _“I have NO idea what you could possibly be talking about Chris.”_

Chris smiled and walked over behind where Piers was sitting while Claire eyed him knowingly. _“Really Piers?”_ Chris said from a couple feet away from him.

Piers didn’t even bother to turn around. _“Nope, not a single clue Chris.”_

Chris looked over at Claire and winked. _“Rawr!”_

            Piers yelped as Chris flipped the couch over, dumping him onto the ground and soon being tackled by Chris while Claire sat nearby laughing hysterically. Piers tried in vain to get away and eventually just let Chris do his bear growl routine as he continued to almost die of embarrassment right in front of Claire.

Chris finished with a short little growl as Claire continued to laugh from her seat on the other side of the room. _“Care to concede yet Piers, bears are cuddly aren’t they?”_

Piers rolled his eyes. _“Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever you say Bearfield. Just get off me before I die from embarrassment in here!”_

_“Piers, how are you going to die from embarrassment? I’m the only other person in here and I think you fit into Chris’ arms quite nicely!”_

Piers was still wrapped up under Chris. _“Hey, thanks Claire that just reminded me!”_

Claire raised an eyebrow. _“Reminded you of what?”_

Piers smirked from under Chris, who was continuing with small playful growls. _“I got a different arm that’s what!”_

            Piers used his mutated arm and push Chris off of himself, while Chris fell back over the couch that was tipped over. Piers had a laugh at Chris’ expense while he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and righted the couch, sitting down on it and bringing Piers with him.

_“Yeah, I really don’t get you Piers. I mean, you **really** fit into his arms pretty good.”_

Piers frowned from his spot wrapped up in Chris’ arms. _“You say that when you’re the one stuck in this spot.”_

Claire rolled her eyes while Chris smiled. _“Who do you think he did that to when we were kids? At least he isn’t doing it to try and torture you.”_

Chris laughed and rested his chin on top of Piers’ head, whom continued to frown. _“What’s so torturous about this Claire?”_

_“Chris, being trapped like that by you is like sitting in a sauna with twenty people that haven’t showered in a year.”_

Chris pulled back from Piers a little bit and frowned. _“Damn, am I really that bad?”_

Claire winked at Piers who got up quickly, having the extra room to move. _“Nope, just thought I’d give poor Piers there a little help.”_

_“Aw c’mon Claire!”_

_“What do you expect Chris, me to just sit here and let you bear hug your boyfriend to death?”_

Chris chuckled and looked over at Piers. _“Actually, yeah, I kind of did.”_

Claire rolled her eyes as the phone started to ring in the other room. _“Chris you should know by now that I don’t live up to expectations, and hold on let me go get that.”_

Claire walked out of the room while Chris yelled after her. _“Isn’t that the truth sis!”_

Chris looked back at Piers and started another playful growl while Piers rolled his eyes. _“Really now Chris, keep that up and you might have Hope thinking there’s another dog in the house.”_ Chris almost looked offended.

_“What do you mean, another “dog”? I’m a total bear!”_

_“Just my own personal grizzly huh Chris?”_

_“Well, if you say so, but you are my personal slimy Ace then Piers.”_

Piers shrugged and looked at his arm. _“It’s shrunk a lot though, you think it might finally come off soon Chris?_

Chris smiled at Piers. _“I sure hope so, but maybe V will be back soon and he can try to tell you more about it hmm?”_

Piers nodded. _“Yeah, how do you think he knows so much about this stuff anyway?”_

Chris looked at the ceiling in thought for a moment. _“That’s a good question… let’s remember to ask him later shall we?”_

Piers was about to answer when Claire called from the other room.

_“Hey you guys! Get ready, V and the others are landing soon! Chris, don’t forget to turn off that dinner you probably burned it to hell already, meet you guys there!”_

            Chris’ face turned slightly red as he got up to go turn off dinner and Piers remained in the living room, watching Claire go dashing out of the door. Piers watched Hope through the back door as he waited for Chris, watching her enjoy the fading sunlight outside. Chris walked in and grabbed a light jacket, considering the late night air would be a little chilly. He offered his hand to Piers, who took it with a smile and hoisted himself up, although quickly being pulled into side-hug by Captain Chris Bearfield.

 _“You’re going to call me a cuddly bear before the night is over Piers.”_  
Piers laughed and tried to break free, although this time Chris had a much better grip on him. _“Whatever you say Chris.”_

_“Grrrr Piers! C’mon, you can’t deny my growl isn’t sexy.”_

Chris loosened his grip slightly around Piers’ shoulder and he took the moment to duck out and go through the front door. _“I never said it wasn’t sexy, you scraggly bear.”_

_“Hey! Why am I suddenly a scraggly bear?!”_

Piers chuckled and walked over, pointing at his face a little. _“Why else would you be a scraggly bear? Now come ON Chris let’s go! I don’t want to miss them setting down!”_

Chris ruffled Piers’ hair. _“Whatever you say little Ace, race you there?”_

Piers smirked in triumph. _“You bet, try to keep up this time and win!”_

            Chris chuckled as Piers started taking off and he ran himself to catch up.

 

Five (5) Minutes later.

            Claire had taken the truck that was sitting outside to get down to the helipad quicker than Piers and Chris, knowing she would be stuck waiting for them to get through their short little love fest before actually leaving. She saw them coming down the road, Piers slightly in the lead with Chris seemingly refreshed right behind him. She could hear the helicopter in the distance, it wouldn’t be too much longer now.

 _“G-gonna b-beat you… Chris!”_ Claire smirked as Chris just picked it up a little and got right next to Piers.

_“You sure about that, Piers?”_

_“As if I’m going to let you beat me tonight Chris!”_

            Claire laughed as Piers pushed a little bit more to get ahead and almost fell down next to Claire from exhaustion. Chris moved a little bit slower to come to a standing stop next to Claire who smiled and grabbed out some water to hand to Piers. Claire pointed to her ear and motioned towards the incoming chopper which Piers and Chris had apparently not even realized was so close.

Chris nodded to Claire and kneeled down next to Piers, giving a squeeze on his shoulder. _“Ready Piers?”_

Piers finished gulping down his water and smiled at Chris. _“You bet Chris.”_

Chris smiled and gave Piers his hand, who happily took it to hoist himself up again, falling into Captain Bearfield’s hug trap once again.

            The helicopter came in at a slightly quicker speed than expected, but considering neither Chris nor Piers had been on a helicopter in quite some time, neither of them gave it any kind of thought. Claire however, raised an eyebrow at Chris, having been used to seeing emergency fueled helicopter landings while working for TerraSave, although Chris didn’t seem to notice her.

            The helicopter touched down and several people came rushing out as soon the back of the helicopter opened. Chris and Piers noted the different teams, and what looked like to be a stretcher following behind the first group to step off.

_“Hurry up and get him to the medical barracks, and make sure his doesn’t try to do anything stupidly heroic again.”_

_“Copy that, Captain.”_

            Chris, Piers, and Claire stood on the side while the soldiers all came rushing out, the stretcher going as fast as anyone dared to take it. They all managed a glance and whom they saw on the stretcher was only barely recognized by Chris and Piers, Claire having zero clue at all who the person was. V was standing near the helicopter, conferring with a couple other soldiers. Once he was done he noticed the three standing nearby and walked over to them.

_“Hey V, how’s it going?”_

He chuckled in response. _“Fine I guess Piers, how are you doing yourself?”_

_“Pretty good, arm is a lot smaller than it used to be though, I can even move it pretty well.”_

_“Can you now, well that is certainly interesting. What’s up Captain Redfield, and miss…?”_

_“Redfield, Claire Redfield, nice to meet you Mister V.”_

He chuckled again after shaking Piers’ hand, who was still wrapped up inside one of Chris’ arms. _“Two Redfields and one Nivans eh guys? Well, that must be one hard fight, so which Redfield keeps the other Redfield and Nivans in check?”_

Claire flicked her hair. _“That would be me obviously; Chris couldn’t keep Piers in check if he had a to-do list.”_

Chris rolled his eyes at Claire. _“Always with the sibling rivalry huh Claire?”_

_“Only when it’s just so easy Chris, you ever going to let Piers out of your little bear hug?”_

Chris laughed. _“Yeah, as soon as he calls me a cuddly bear.”_

Piers poked Chris in the ribs and just got a laugh. _“Not in front of everyone else Chris.”_

Chris’ eyes lit up with a spark of challenge. _“So does this mean you’re still going to call me one?”_

Piers winked. _“Well, **maybe** later. On a more present note, V I had some questions if you wouldn’t mind answering them?”_

V smiled slightly and shrugged. _“Whatcha want to know Piers?”_

Piers tapped a finger to his chin in thought for a moment. _“Well, when we saw you in the comms room you had a cast on, what happened to it?”_

Chris nodded as well while Claire stood by and watched since she did not know too much about this. _“Well… where to start… mind if I hop on the hood of your truck there for a moment?”_

Chris nodded and V hopped up on the hood, pulling the sleeve of the arm that had been casted up a bit. _“So, I guess I can kind of start with this. So you know how people have those prosthetic arms and legs and such? Well… mine is kind of a mix between that and a regular arm I guess. I can use it, I can feel it, but it’s not completely fake and it’s not completely normal if you kind of understand what I am saying.”_

Piers and Chris nodded in understanding, Claire as well. _“Is that the same with your eye then?”_

V looked towards the medical barracks for a moment, shaking his head. _“Nah. The eye is completely fake, even though I am able to see through it. When you see as much crazy shit as I’ve seen, and you are pretty damn techy, you learn to make some pretty weird stuff.”_

            Piers raised an eyebrow and broke away from Chris for a moment and opened the truck. He went into the back and started rummaging around while the other three looked at him curiously. He came out after a few moments holding his old goggles in his hands.

_“Hey here you good V! Thanks for these man they were awesome!”_

V smiled and took the goggles. _“No problem Piers, glad they helped you out as well as they did.”_

_“So am I, so, sorry to ask but… what happened to the guy who went by us earlier?”_

V sighed. _“The Lieutenant? Kid tried to do some dumb heroic stuff, all this stuff about all of the Captains we have now and such being the future because we’ve seen the beginning and the end of almost every virus. Then he took a bullet for me and I almost kicked his ass myself. He’ll be fine, but damn if he didn’t scare the shit out of me doing that. The Veterans of the B.S.A.A. ma have seen more than the younger troops, but we need to **train** them, because they **are** the ones who will take us into the future.”_ V slid off the hood of the truck and pointed at his arm. _“Things built by man never last forever, and it is only a matter of time until I can’t build something to help when it’s needed. Things that have stood the test of time, through good and bad, no matter what could happen or how far down it went; those are the things that last.”_

            Claire stood by, taking in every word that was said. Piers looked up at Chris and Chris looked down at him. Piers buried his head in Chris’ shoulder and Chris rested his chin on the top of Piers’ head. Piers mumbled something into Chris’ shoulder and pulled his head out with a smile on his face.

V and Claire chuckled nearby just watching the sweet scene before them. _“So Piers, you said you could move your arm for the most part? Let me see it.”_

Piers obliged and held his arm out for V to inspect.

_“Hmm… that’s real good, I mean yeah obviously it is smaller no surprise there, sorry I’m stating the obvious, but the fact you can move it is really good. You won’t be fully cured from the virus but maybe… have you tried using some of the bio-electricity on it to see if anything happens?”_

_“No, not really, I never really thought to actually try to do something with this arm in case I couldn’t control it.”_

V looked at Chris. _“You guys got one of those battery containers I gave you in your truck there?”_

Chris walked over and opened the back door to the truck and started looking around. _“I think so… yeah here’s one.”_

_“Alright sweet, bring it on over here Chris.”_

Claire decided to pop in and ask her first question. _“So, what exactly is all this stuff for?”_

_“Well, I made Piers some goggles and some stuff for his A.M.R. and they were actually using bio-electricity, which with its unique properties is just really freaking amazing. You can use it to power stuff like ten times longer than normal electricity, or, in Piers’ case, you can use it to enhance some stuff and use it as a sort of speed up for repairing or healing something much better than medicine can.”_

_“Damn, I wish TerraSave had someone like you to help them out.”_

V’s eye lit up with a little spark. _“Just because I’m with the B.S.A.A. doesn’t mean I can’t help someone else now Miss. Redfield. Just work it out with the higher ups and I can always help you with something you need. Ok so Piers, just try to see if you can actually… **draw** the electricity out of this and into your arm.”_

            Piers raised an eyebrow but didn’t question it. He set his arm on top of the storage case. Everyone heard a crackle, Piers felt a buzz of energy, and his arm took a slightly blueish glow. In a few moments the heard a slight cracking sound and as they watched, breaks started appearing on Piers’ mutated arm. Nobody said anything but watched with mouths hanging open as it eventually broke into pieces and fell off.

_“P-P-Piers… can you… can you move your arm?”_

Piers looked up at Chris and flexed his arm. _“Definitely…”_

Everyone broke into a huge grin as Chris brought Piers into probably the thousandth bear hug for the night. _“Holy shit that’s amazing Piers!”_

Claire and V just kept standing by in a muted silence as Chris picked up Piers and swung him around in a circle. _“Ha ha, ok, ok, put me down you bear!”_

Chris set Piers down and walked over to V, clapping him on the shoulder. _“I really don’t know how to thank you, honestly, you did so much for Piers and me both and you probably don’t even realize it.”_

V smiled, happily, and Chris thought he saw some kind of regret laced in there somewhere. _“Yeah… glad I could help you guys out.”_

Claire walked over and patted him on the shoulder. _“Hey don’t feel down, I’m sure whatever happened it happened because they thought you needed to keep going. I’m glad you could help out Chris and Piers, you can be an honorary member of the Nivanfield fan group just like me!”_

Piers and Chris stared at Claire for a moment. _“The… the what group now Claire?”_

Claire rolled her eyes at Chris. _“The Nivanfield fan group… think of it as like your own little group of admirers.”_

V chuckled and started to move past Chris. _“Good luck to you three, hope we might meet again someday.”_

They all waved goodbye to V as he walked towards the medical barracks, seeing the sun setting in front of him. _“So what are we going to do now Chris?”_

Chris looked from Claire to Piers. _“I don’t know, what **are** we going to do now?”_

Piers smiled. _“I don’t know, I just want to spend some time with my cuddly bear and hopefully have it be normal for once.”_

Chris’ mouth widened in surprise and Claire giggled. _“Yes, I got you to call me a cuddly bear!”_

Piers laughed. _“Yeah, yeah, don’t get too excited now Chris you might have a heart attack.”_

Claire giggled again, hopping into the driver’s seat of the truck while doing so. _“Oh come on now give him some credit Piers, if he’s gone this long with someone like you I’m sure he can take it. Hurry up and hop in though let’s go home!”_

Chris smiled and kissed Piers on the forehead before hopping in as well. _“Yeah, let’s go home Piers.”_


End file.
